Synthetic Marijuana Sales Soar As Demand Rise

Article first published as Synthetic Marijuana Sales Soar As Demand Rise on Blogcritics.

Spice and K2 users are grabbing this product off the shelf so fast that some stores are claiming on Fridays they pulled in $10,000 in Spice sales alone. This rise can be contributed to states rushing to have it banned and a user rushing to hoard the product before it is banned in their area.


The number of states that have either banned synthetic pot or has lawmakers working on bans is increasing as Missouri Governor Jay Nixon signed a state ban last week. Just as with alcohol and other items that have been prohibited by law in the past, is K2, Spice and related substances going to go underground? Right now spice and other K2 products can be legally purchased mainly online and head shops.

Capitol Hemp owner Adam Eidinger said that in the 18 months he has been stocking spice, the demand has doubled every month now making up a third of his revenue. If other spice retailers are experiencing this same effect on their sales, what is going to happen when it becomes prohibited in every state?

The debate over the use of K2, spice has been getting stronger as lawmakers react to not only the cries of their constituents, but to the lack of data or official study on the effects of its use. Other than what is reported by retailers and spice customers, there has been no official report on the number of its users.

There has been an increased in the number of calls to poison centers across the nation concerning spice. Across 41 states the American Association of Poison Control Centers has logged over 500 cases of bad reaction to spice for the first half of 2010 and only 13 cases for 2009.

Arkansas Board of Health recently placed K2 and all of its derivatives on its banned substance list in an emergency order signed by Arkansas Governor Beebe. Kansas was the first state to outlaw the products in March 2010 followed by Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and Arkansas with other lawmakers working on bans in their states.