K2 crisis hits close to home

LAKEWOOD RANCH — As a registered nurse and the director of the cardiac cath lab at Lakewood Ranch Medical Center, East County resident Jan Froelich works to save lives every day.

But she’d never felt as hopeless as she did the day she held her teenage son in her arms as he asked for help fighting the use of an herbal mixture known as K2 or K2 Spice.

“I help people every day with heart disease, but I couldn’t help my son,” Froelich said, her eyes welling up with tears.

Froelich on March 2 Baker Acted her son, who is under ongoing medical treatment at this time.

“I never knew this (drug) existed,” said Froelich, shaking her head. “That’s the scary part. You don’t want to do these things for your kid, but it’s tough love. We want to get help for him.”

K2 is a mixture of herbs and spices applied with a synthetic chemical compound similar to the active ingredient in marijuana. When smoked, it mimics the distinct high, euphoric feeling of marijuana but also can cause intense hallucinations, severe agitation, seizures, vomiting and an elevated heart rate and blood pressure, among other symptoms.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, using its emergency scheduling authority, on March 1 extended by six months the control of five substances used in K2 and K2 Spice and made it illegal to sell or possess those chemicals or products that contain them.

The product, however, still is available in tobacco shops, some gas stations and over the Internet, where it is sold as an “herbal incense.”

“It’s way too easy to get,” Froelich said, adding it can even be purchased on Amazon.com. “It’s not regulated. We’re pushing our kids to take more and more risks.”

Froelich said she always had encouraged her son to make good choices, and he always answered “No” when she asked if he were doing drugs.

But after Christmas, especially, she noticed his once-happy disposition was changing. He had become more impulsive, moodier and more volatile in temper.

When he said he planned to sell his iPod shortly after Christmas and chided her for giving him a gift card instead of cash, Froelich knew something was wrong. And on March 2, after her son’s behavior became intensely volatile and then calmed down enough for him to ask for assistance, Froelich sought help from other healthcare professionals.

Dr. Mitchell Hall, Lakewood Ranch Emergency Room, said he first saw the effects of K2 in local emergency rooms about two years ago, although the number of youths being treated in emergency rooms for K2 regionally has doubled over the last few years. Incidents of K2, he said, still are low compared to overdoses of prescription drugs and alcohol, at about one in 20 overdose-related ER visits.

Even still, the substance is beginning to garner attention because of its side effects.

“It’s dangerous, because it’s not regulated,” Hall said. “It’s got stimulants in it. The packaging doesn’t state all the ingredients, so you don’t know what you’re going to get.”

Additionally, the amount of ingredients in each package can vary greatly, he said.

“It can have effects on the electrical system of the heart,” Hall said. “In the cases I’ve seen, people have been out of control. They have horrible judgment.”

The DEA since 2009 has received an increasing number of reports from poison control centers and law enforcement regarding these products, the DEA’s website states. The products are being marketed as “legal,” but the FDA has not approved the chemicals used in them.

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].