Spice Psychopharmacology: Just The Basics

Specifically, how these ingredients act upon your brain and blood chemistry. Remember that old commercial with the frying egg that said “This is your brain on drugs?” Keep this image in mind as you read further and you’ll immediately get the right idea.

The most frequently used picture of a Spice product that’s sold on the Internet is a silver package about the size of a tea bag imprinted with an exotic-looking eye. The word “Spice” is imprinted below. On the back of the package, these ingredients are listed:
•    Canavalia maritima
•    Leonurus sibricus
•    Nymphaea caerulia
•    Pedicularis densiflora
•    Zornia latifolia
•    Nelumbo nucifera
•    Scutellaria nana

Unless you’re a botanist with an extensive knowledge of Latin herb names, you probably gained absolutely nothing from reading this list of ingredients.. Some Spice retailers have a “real world” translation posted on their sites but most don’t, nor are they likely to respond to your further inquiry because, frankly, they don’t even know. They’re not botanists either; they only sell the stuff. According to a few European studies by honest-to-goodness botanical researchers, it’s very possible that what’s inside the package isn’t equal to what’s listed on it. Remember, this kind of product isn’t regulated by the FDA since it’s not marketed as a medication. Think about all those TV infomercials you’ve seen for herbal weight loss products that promise to make you thin as a super-model without any semblance of diet or exercise. The FDA isn’t concerned about them, either. Caveat Emptor! This is one reason why Spice is legally sold via the Internet. It’s not like they’re selling antibiotics or Viagra– just a handful of harmless herbs and no government regulation is required.

HU-210 and How Spice is Different than Marijuana

Perhaps you recall reading about the one (alleged) ingredient in Spice that, in the United States, is a government-controlled substance: HU-210. Under our laws, it’s illegal to use, possess or distribute this substance. Why? Because it’s an odd, not fully understood substance that appears to have intoxicating effects very similar in chemical structure to alpha,delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, that’s found in marijuana.

There is one major difference between them: THC occurs naturally in marijuana, and HU-210 is a man-made chemical that’s produced in a laboratory. An observant person might conclude that anything producing a chemical “high” must be government-regulated and have a federal tax stamp on it, correct? Not exactly. While this may be true of alcohol and nicotine, some people can get high off anything in a pinch, including paint thinner, nail polish remover, aerosol cans and plain household bleach. None of these are regulated or taxed and you can’t grow any of them, either. But they will turn your brain into that frying egg in a split second; fatalities from inhaling (“huffing”)fumes like this are staggering among young people and some ethnic groups.

The perplexing question about Spice and HU-210 is this: Is it in that package and others like it, or is it not? You can’t be sure whether or not the Spice you buy off the ‘Net contains HU-210. No FDA-regulated ingredients, remember? Most website retailers will officially tell you that no, their product (sold as-is)doesn’t contain this or any other controlled substance. Okay, legally that’s good to know. But up pops that same question that we’ve addressed before: If Spice doesn’t get users high like THC does, then why bother to smoke it? Or even sell it?

Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Try another memory, not so distant as the frying egg commercial. Over a decade ago, legal history was made when plaintiffs won some highly publicized lawsuits against “Big Tobacco” company, R.J. Reynolds. Not only did these civil tort actions tell us what we already knew – that smoking cigarettes caused cancer – but we certainly did learn that tobacco companies actually manipulated the nicotine levels in cigarettes to make them even more addictive and even more lethal in the long run. Taking this enlightenment into today’s “Spice Wars” begs yet another question: Is it possible that although they claim otherwise, Spice manufacturers actually do toss a little HU-210 into those teabag-size packages with the exotic-looking eye on the front and the mishmash of ingredients on the back? Again, it stands to reason; why smoke it if it doesn’t get you high?

Unknown Ingredient Levels in Spice = Potential Dangers

The bottom line on the psycho0pharmacology of Spice is that the only people in the world who really know what’s in it are those people who “bag it and tag it,” i.e. the manufacturers. And they aren’t telling! Instead, researchers all over the world are hustling to do lots of expensive, government-funded tests to find the answer to this mystery themselves. Governments all over the world are hustling to declare that since they don’t actually know what’s in Spice, they’ll simply do the knee-jerk reaction that they do best – they make it illegal. Some really smart research team will figure it all out in the end, and the legislators can say either “Whoops!” or “Told ya.” Besides, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck – you know the rest. HU-210 looks and quacks like THC.

Take a deep breath and consider one last, annoyingly unanswerable question: If HU-210 looks and quacks, then why doesn’t it register positive on the standard drug tests that easily detect levels of THC? After all, synthetic (man-made) opiates like Percocet, Fentanyl and OxyContin show up on drug tests just like natural opium-poppy-derived pain medications like heroin, codeine and morphine. Maybe HU-210 is some kind of “evil twin” that creeps up on users, lawmakers and TV evangelists when they aren’t looking. Or maybe we just don’t have the right drug tests to identify levels of HU-210. Yet.

If none of your questions about the psycho-pharmacology of Spice were answered in this article, that’s okay because there really aren’t any answers. Yet.