SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - Synthetic cannabis is used by teens and adults. Now it appears it may be behind actress Demi Moore’s collapse and convulsions.
49-year-old Moore was semiconscious when a friend called 911. The caller said “She smoked something --- it’s not marijuana, but it’s similar to incense.”
University of Utah Neurologist, Dr. Adam de Havenon, began studying the impact of Spice on the brain after drawing a connection between two of his seizure patients, and smoking the synthetic drug form of marijuana. “These Spice products just seem to activate the seizure area of the brain.” He says the same reaction is not true of marijuana which stimulates the brain in the same area, but in a different way.
He says Demi Moore’s symptoms are consistent with smoking Spice. Moore reportedly had smoked K2 Spice, which was made illegal under a special order by the Drug Enforcement Administration last year.
The cheap herbal incense mimics marijuana. “It essentially gets them stoned and users report an experience very similar to marijuana, and that’s because it does occupy the same receptor in the brain.”
Dr. de Havenon has published research showing the dangerous consequences of smoking Spice. He says brain abnormality is visible in testing. "There was this diffuse, what we call enhancement, but irregularity of the brain right after the seizure that we do associate with medication and toxic events.”
He says five of the most common synthetic canabanoids were removed from the market by the DEA but, he says, those making Spice just come up with new forms of the drug. “It’s kind of a wolf in sheep’s clothing, in a sense, because it is sold as incense. It’s sold over the counter, and realistically it’s being used for people as a recreational drug.”
Dr. de Havenon says seizures are not the only dangerous medical side effects associated with Spice. He says violent behavioral problems as well as medical problems are not uncommon. “We are seeing Poison Control Centers around the country report emergency department visits for things like dangerous heart rhythms to seizures.” Dr. de Havenon says there is nothing safe about the readily available, over the counter high.
