Yup the drug war is all about harm reduction. /sarcasm

The media seems to be a little confused. In fact, the media is down right flaccid in it's attempts to clarify their confusion. It seems to have forgotten that some terms can be fed to them from the bursting tit of a succulent propaganda machine.

I'll try to clear things up for them.

'K2', 'Spice', "Fire and Ice', 'What the hell they are calling it now in the papers' is not marijuana. It's not "synthetic" marijuana. It has nothing to DO with marijuana other then one similar mode of consumption. Smoking.  Oh and there are some dried plants of some kind involved. Maybe.

"You expect us journalists to actually follow up and find out what we are writing about? We don't get paid enough for that shit."

You know, calling this stuff synthetic marijuana is a bit like saying moonshine is synthetic water, or synthetic wine. Or hell, wine is synthetic grape juice. Or the other way around? Whatever.

The substances that are grouped under the misnomer of "synthetic marijuana" are a combination of unknown, varied, and unregulated drugs, herbs, and other ingredients. It's a bit like the wild west. In fact this situation reminds me of what the snake oil and traveling "medicine men" of old used to do and how they went about making their buck. And THAT reminds me of something important. And it's something that often gets lost in the noise of Drug War battles. It's the role of the FDA in this whole mess.

The FDA was created for real and beneficial reasons.While the FDA has many detractors these days it once had a job to do but now it has been hijacked

The FDA should go back to doing its job instead of towing the line of the absurd and society warping Drug War policies. The job is (was) to regulate the production of food and drug items with the safety of the consumer in mind. One of the aims was to provide the consumer with true information about products by way of testing, labeling, and standards. I think that information is one of the most important keys to harm reduction and consumer protection. We should be able to read helpful and lucid facts on a product, like, for example:

"K2 has X, Y, Z ingredients in N amounts. The possible effects are A, B, and C. Users with the following L, M, N, conditions and taking the following O, P medications shouldn't use it. It also tastes like puppies."

Why is this so difficult? Is it cost? Frankly it doesn't matter if it is. The FDA itself needs to be overhauled. I'll repeat myself, the FDA has been hijacked by political and social agendas. And also by corporate interests, but that's another post but they are not so separate of subjects.

Ask yourself, what is really beneficial to consumers? Information or fear and panic stories like the one I've linked to? Regulation or an ever expanding illicit black market soup? Why is true harm reduction and consumer protection such foreign concepts in the US? Why is it that when harm reduction is brought up it's coated in lip-service platitudes and insulting "won't somebody think of the children!?" triteness, instead of real action that would in fact reduce harm? Why does it always have to be the same pitchfork villager chant of "Ban Ban Ban!"

.... Is it because it's all worked so well, so far?