Quoted from a post in another forum

"Officials are worried about a new recreational drug trend among Berlin youths called "Spice" that could lead to permanent physical damage, daily Der Tagesspiegel reported on Monday.

Spice is apparently just a harmless and legal mix of herbs meant to provide an aromatic smell as an air freshener, manufacturers say. But teens are rolling the substance into cigarettes to get a marijuana like high, officials told the paper.

“The high is supposed to last longer,” emergency drug abuse worker Michael Frommhold told the paper. “Sometimes it lasts between six and eight hours.”

But because Spice, unlike marijuana, is sold legally in head shops across the city, authorities told the paper their hands are tied when it comes to preventing kids from smoking.

Recent weeks have shown a steep increase in reports of Spice misuse, Frommhold said, adding that it is a psychoactive substance that can lead to hallucinations and psychological problems. “It can lead to anxiety attacks all the way to schizophrenia,” he told the paper. Many head shops around town have reported long waiting lists for new deliveries of the product.

Berlin’s drug commissioner Christine Köhler-Azara and Federal Drug Commissioner Sabine Bätzing have issued warnings about smoking the substance and officials plan to review how to regulate its use in the coming weeks, Der Tagesspiegel reported.

“One should under no circumstances consider Spice as a harmless natural drug,” Bätzing has said.

Published: 17 Nov 08 09:01 CET
The Local (news@thelocal.de)"


This is unfortunate that they use the same name.

or fortunate

*phew*

When I read the headline I thought they were talking about us. I hear those "spice" products they're referring to are about the only "legal weed substitute" product that actually gives you cannabis-like high, but the GCMS analysis of it indicated contamination with some carcinogenic additives likely leached from the plastic containers they extract in.

Me too.

i figure a little confusing isnt always a bad thing..especially if WE know the difference

I need to get me some of that!!! lol jk that stuff is nasty. All those legal "buds" are just wild cabbage and crap.

Have you tried Spice gold?

I know all these legal buds things were worthless crap 3 or 4 years ago, but this one finally seems to be the real deal. I don't think I've run into posts by anyone who's tried it that didn't find it to be effective, and quite similar to a cannabis high (and the vast majority of the posts I've seen were by longstanding members of forums, not a advertising bot)

Haha. Phew. I've seen that spice Gold stuff advertised.

Isn't it just a mixture of known herbs that are often sold as MJ substitute, like damiana, dagga, catmint,etc?

No one really knows, they keep their recipe secret. Obviously it's got something more in it than the usual suspects.

Their recipe is secret? I'd never smoke secret ingredients. Well if you say it works really well, could it be an as yet unscheduled research chemical? I know nothing about these... one with a "6-8 hour high"?

It could be a research chem, though I don't know of any that produce a cannabis-like high offhand. And I agree with you about not wanting to smoke secret ingredients. That, combined with the price has kept me away, but some people on probation are partial to it.

I believe there may be some hither to unknown or difficult to trace synthetic cannabinoid in Spice

couldn't somebody analyze this stuff? christian raetsch was given this stuff and he tried it. he said that in NO WAY those ingredients could EVER produce anything like this high. not even if in extract from. he says that it must be some chemical garbage and that one shouldn't touch the stuff until it is known for sure whats going on.

my guess is that this will be the next stuff to be made illegal. we shouldn't use the name spice anymore because it could draw unwanted attention to this website. how bout we call it elfdust? i think it would even be good for traveller to run a script on this site so every word of "spice" will be changed to elfdust. would this be possible? i can imagine that we are only a few steps away from being searched after.

I think that's a good idea Lorax.

And ya I'm with y'all, I'm not smoking something that I don't know what it is...

So I'm the only one here to have instructed my friends to dose me with anything, any time and without me being aware that (and what) I'm dosed?

haha

Lately i was offered some LSD-substitute. The package didn't say what was in it and the website of the manufacturer didn't say what was in it either. Finally i found some german website that showed alist of ingredients. It was just kola-nut and some ephedra-type ingredient.
I never take anything of wich i don't know exactly what's in it. But i'm asking myself whether this spice stuff is realy that spectacular. If it is, i think it could be a concentrated extract just as well as that it could be some new chemical.

It's supposed to contain blue and pink lotus, dwarf skullcap, some herb called indian warrior and dagga.
Besides that it got some other ingredients in it as well that are said to be just for the flavour (like marshmallow).
It makes me wonder if it could be just some carbonmonoxide, adding that extra buzz, ascribed to it.
I'm not gonna smoke it anyway.

Well, we never know EXACTLY what's in whatever we eat. This goes for any foods/plants containing active substances. Herbalists may ascribe this herb as an aphrodisiac but no-one knows the active ingredient. In the past people had been drinking St. John's Wort without knowing what's inside it or what is the active substance(s). Same goes for as many herbs as a mind can put down. They simply worked and people were fine.

It is the collective anthropological data/experience that deemed active herbs as "safe to use" or "unsafe to use" or "use with caution" or whatever.

If people had been smoking the "Spice" product for 5-6 generations without side effects not many people would be worried as to its "mysterious" ingredients that make it work. Chemists would love to isolate and identify it but that's another story.