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Councilor proposes fines on stores caught selling synthetic marijuana

City Councilor Frank Baker (Dorchester) wants to bar the sale of products such as K2/Spice, and back that up with $300-a-day fines for stores caught selling them.

At a City Council meeting today, Baker said the products, currently sold in gas stations and convenience stores, are "masked in small colorful foil packets with pictures of cartoon characters and innocently labeled as incense" but they have psychotic effects like paranoia and hallucinations. A few cases have even been associated with heart attacks, he said.

In New Hampshire, synthetic marijuana has been linked to over 40 overdoses, leading Governor Maggie Hassan to declare a state of emergency last summer, he said.

The council agreed to Baker's request for a hearing by the Committee on Government Operations.

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Comments

Can we please stop calling it "synthetic marijuana"?

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real marijuana doesn't kill people. if selling this is illegal, why don't we put people in prison for selling it just like any other drug?

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Why?

Doesn't this accurately describe what it is, or is meant to be?

Synthetic cannabis? Is that better?

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No

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Synthetic marijuana tends to be a blend of synthetic cannabinoids, which have been sprayed on some other plants. It's sold in order to evade laws against products that contain natural cannabinoids.

So while synthetic-cannabinoid-doused herbs is a more accurate term, synthetic marijuana is hardly dishonest, and it gets the point across.

Part of the problem is that THC can be produced synthetically but not legally sold, so things like K2 could be much less dangerous than they currently are if THC/CBD were used instead CCH or HU-210 (which are signficantly more potent than naturally-occuring cannabinoids).

But still, they're synthetic cannabinoids which act similarly to real cannabinoids, and a planty product which contains them can be reasonably called "synthetic marijuana." This isn't about attacking the devil ganja which makes our children listen to the hippity-hoppity musics,

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We're not all drug nerds, most people wouldn't know what you were talking about if you said "synthetic cannabinoids." It's not really that inaccurate.

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I didn't know you could get that stuff in MA.. I know people who go to NH to get it, but I thought because it was banned in MA.

On a different note.. K2/Spice.. gross. just get the real shit.. sheesh.

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But Frank, you sold REAL weed for years!

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to realize that the synthetic crap, unlike actual marijuana, is really bad news.

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For the record, I strongly support legalization.

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They should add e-cigarettes as well to the ban.

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They're looking to classify those things as cigarettes so the same smoking laws would apply to them.

Next they should set the age requirement of fedoras to 65+ and the cycle of nerdery will be one step closer to defeat.

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Don't ask for too much information at Boston City Council !
https://www.reddit.com/r/foia/comments/3dliwq/boston_city_council/

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