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New York lawmakers are
demanding that internet companies stop selling synthetic marijuana, known as
K2, widely used among New York’s homeless population. The city and state have
already launched an aggressive campaign to limit sales in convenience stores. The
drug is a potent mix of herbs sprayed with synthetic cannabinoids, and is sold
in a plastic bag for a dollar or two. It can cause hallucinations that last all
day, and more severe psychotic episodes, paranoia, anxiety than marijuana.
Critics say it can also cause side effects such as vomiting, agitation and
rapid heart rate.
New
York city and state already have laws prohibiting the sale of synthetic
marijuana in bodegas, with fines of US$500. Lawmakers are now sending letters
to online retailers, eBay, Craigslist and Backpage asking them to remove the
listings for the drugs.
RT report continues:
“The
internet has now become a virtual bodega and a chemist’s warehouse, where all
of these products that are commonly purchased by young people can now be
purchased online,” New York state Senator Jeffrey Klein, who represents the
Bronx, said Thursday, according to
The Observer.
Klein
said the drug is striking people across all ages and income levels.
The
New York Times ran
a profile on Wednesday featuring a stretch of 125th street in Harlem as the
ground zero for a growing K2 problem, with accounts of people passed out,
lovers getting partially undressed to make out, or others falling into trances.
“It
was early afternoon when the man with the twitching legs was dragged from the
ground into an ambulance,” the Times wrote. “Another man selling books washed
away the vomit.”
New
York lawmakers are considering other laws to combat the epidemic. One would
allow the city to shut down a business for selling K2 under its “nuisance
abatement law.”
City
Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, whose district includes the strip on 125
Street, said she would introduce a law banning substances marketed as synthetic
marijuana or any imitation drug that had a similar effect. It is seen as a move
to stop manufacturers skirting the law, which they have been able to do up
until now by frequently changing the chemical mix as substances are banned.
“It
is a dangerous, unpredictable and illegal substance and for too long
unscrupulous stores and online marketplaces have profited,” said
Mark-Viverito, according
to the New York Post.
State
lawmakers are also proposing increasing fines for stores up to US$2,000 for the
first offense, then up to US$5,000 for a second offense. A third offense would
revoke the store’s license to sell lottery tickets, beer and cigarettes. There
is also a proposal to criminalize the sale, with prison terms of
five-and-a-half years for sellers caught with 16 ounces of the drug.
As lawmakers grapple with
the growing K2 problem, Bronx Assemblyman Mark Gjonaj said: “Our city streets
are being taken over by zombies…we cannot look the other way,” reported the New
York Post.
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