Kronic, Spice and K2 are just a few of the names used for synthetic cannabis. And its potency and ingredients can vary just as much. The NSW Government has followed several other States in banning the drug, and the mining industry is planning to test workers for its presence. But why is there so much concern about a product that until now has been legal and readily available over the internet?
From Friday the herbal smoking products will be banned from sale in NSW, and a week later they will become prohibited drugs in the same category as cannabis, heroin and cocaine.
Use of synthetic cannabis is reportedly common in the mining industry, and the NSW Minerals Council has welcomed the ban.Associate professor Adrian Dunlop is the director of drug and alcohol services for Hunter New England Health, and president of the Australian Professional Society on Alcohol and Other Drugs.
He's just returned from an international conference in Florida where, as he told 1233's Jill Emberson, the emerging problem of synthetic cannabis was very much on the agenda.
The professor says many parts of the world are battling with how to respond to these types of drugs, even though they've been around for 20 years.
"Since they're not sold for human consumption, that's one of the ways that people so far have got around being able to market the drug," he says.
Adrian says synthetic cannabis, which is being made mostly in Asia and Europe, has a big international market via the internet.
However, it hasn't yet become so popular that it's causing big problems in NSW.
"I think there's only a couple of people who've presented to drug and alcohol services across NSW with Spice that we know of so far," he says.
"So we're not yet seeing people using this drug in large numbers.
"Where we might be starting to see them is in the psychiatric emergency departments."
Adrian explains that the synthetic version can have nastier and more severe effects than naturally grown cannabis.
"There's up to 400 different cannabis-like drugs that could be in one of these packets of Spice, but some of them have very nasty effects on the body," he says.
"Things like strange heartbeats, seizures, confusion, hallucinations.
"Essentially people don't know what they're buying."
Synthetic cannabis is sold under a number of different names.
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