In the last quarter of 2008 there has been a big hype in Germany about a product called Spice. Spice, which was sold in three variations called “Spice Gold”, “Spice Silver” and “Spice Diamond”, was declared to be burnt in a special incense-burner to fill the air with a nice scent. The product was primarily available in Headshops and the most consumers didn’t burn this herbal like it should be. The majority of spice-customers decided to smoke this incense like marihuana, because it produced nice effects like real organic Cannabis.
Because of the fact that organic cannabis products, which contain THC, are not legal in Germany, many people were really delighted about the possibility to get a cannabinoid-high without getting in conflict with the law. Further more drug-tests, which are used to test if a driver took several kinds of drugs, didn’t show anything about the abuse of this herbal incenses.
These facts are the reason to the big media hype about this new category of drugs. Under the pressure of the press, the german government was forced to react. It took a few months before the government solved the riddle about how this product achieves it effects when smoked. A company, which is focused on the synthesis of synthetic cannabinoids, found JWH-018 and further synthetic cannabinoids in Spice and analogous products.
In February of 2009 JWH-018 and other cannabinoids, wich were found in several legal herbal incenses, were banned by the government of germany. Since there are a few millions of consumers, which liked the legal status of these products, the industry behind these herbal incenses was forced to create new products which contain other synthetic cannabinoids, which are still legal.
One year after the first ban for synthetic cannabinoids, further substances – which were found in new products – got banned by the government. But this didn’t stop the industry behind herbal incenses to create new products. In front of this background it is not surprising that now, in the last quarter of 2010, there are a lot of legal products (the german term for this kind of new legal drugs is Räuchermischungen) available, which create nice cannabinoid-typical effects when smoked.
The race between the industry and the government will go on as long as real cannabis stands under the influence of prohibition. There are just too much people, who prefer the effects of cannabinoids in comparison to alcohol. These people are even willing to pay high prices for herbal incenses, which contain uninvestigated cannabinoids, as long as these products are legal.