Tag Archives: drug abuse

Legal Pot Substitute Sells Like Hotcakes in Las Vegas!

Think what you smell is purely incense?  Think again.  Now, incense has a growing new use– a legal substitute for pot in Las Vegas and elsewhere around the country.

Smoke Depot in Las Vegas currently sells a legal greenish-brown substance called Black Mamba which, for many, creates a highly euphoric feeling similar to marijuana. Collectively known as “Spice,” sister brands include K2, Cloud Nine and Green Buddha. 

All are herbs that, many times, are laced with a variant of THC, the psychoactive substance found in marijuana. Though the canister’s gold-and black wrapper warns: “Not for human consumption,” consumers across the country are smoking Spice like pot and experiencing similar effects. But since it doesn’t contain actual THC, Spice isn’t detectable in drug tests.

Black Mamba has been the preferred brand throughout Las Vegas over the last few months, according to numerous shop owners. They’re so popular that stores like Smoke Dept can’t keep them stocked!  And the skyrocketing sales are primarily attributed to word of mouth advertising due to the nature of the product. 

The products are not cheap. A gram of Black Mamba costs $20 at Smoke Depot and they’ve been selling about 200 grams a week for the past three months.

A number of shops in Las Vegas say they’ve been selling to anyone, including teenagers.

But just because it’s legal doesn’t mean Spice is safe.

In the last two months, a Missouri toxicologist says that he’s seen more than 30 cases of teens with hallucinations, elevated heart rates, vomiting and seizures after using K2.

Las Vegas storeowners say customers are starting to request K2. Spice is still so new that the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services says it hasn’t seen many reports. “It’s on our radar, but there’s not a lot known about it,” spokesman Ben Kieckhefer says.

Users in Las Vegas are experimenting with Black Mamba, K2 and Spice Gold more than any other brands, according to Las Vegas Metropolitan Police narcotics detective Bruce Gentner, and the results haven’t been pretty. “We just had a case where two young men got really sick,” he says. “They bought it at a local smoke shop here, and within minutes of smoking it, they were transported to the hospital with hallucinations, vomiting and panic attacks.” 

Black Mamba comes from a plant called Damiana, grown regionally. In its natural form, it’s used in tea and liquor and is a known sleeping aid and aphrodisiac.

Although Black Mamba is typically Damiana treated with a THC variant called JWH-018, users can’t be sure what they’re getting, says Gary Boggs, executive assistant of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s office of diversion control.

Though prohibited in most of Europe, the main ingredients in most Spice are not regulated in the United States.

The DEA is going through preliminary steps to determine whether the substances in Spice should be federally controlled. Then it will collaborate with the Department of Health and Human Services, a process that could take years.

Kansas recently became the first state to ban the compounds, and two counties in Missouri also have barred the substance. The Missouri Senate will take a second vote to send a bill to the House that would ban it statewide and make possession of Spice a felony. Weber School District in Utah recently banned Spice from school grounds.

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Tennis Great, Las Vegan Andre Agassi Admits Using Crystal Meth in Autobiography

In his upcoming book, iconic tennis star, businessman, educator and Las Vegas resident Andre Agassi admits that in 1997 he used the recreational drug crystal meth or “gack,” as his assistant referrred to it, while he was married to Brooke Shields. AndreAgassi3

“I can’t speak to addiction, but a lot of people would say that if you’re using anything as an escape, you have a problem,” he reportedly tells People magazine. 

The book not only details his drug use, but it also touches on his hair loss, his tumultuous marriage to Brooke Shields and how happy he is with his current wife, Steffi Graf. 

Agassi says he was not concerned about revealing his drug use. “I was worried for a moment, but not for long. … I wore my heart on my sleeve and my emotions were always written on my face. I was actually excited about telling the world the whole story.” 

His book, Open: An Autobiography will be in stores on November 9, but is being serialized by the Times of London beginning tomorrow. 

Later, although Agassi tested positive for the drug, he managed to continue to play tennis. 

While the admission now may get him in hot water with the tennis and sports kingdom, it certainly can’t hurt his book sales- or can it?

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Hunt on for Michael Jackson’s ‘Doctor Death’

Doctors for hire which “freely” write prescriptions for the right price- willing pawns in an almost daily celebrity drama that is orchestrated expressly by and for entertainers and other high profile clientele for getting that legal high, which, many believe, contributed to Michael Jackson’s ultimate demise.  

Many doctors were apparently sucked into the scheme of coming when beckoned to numerous Jackson residences, supposedly to help the entertainer with this or that urgent personal malady, only to eventually find out the entertainer illnesses were largely feigned and dramatically orchestrated to merely try to get prescription drugs to make life and living more palatable. 

If one doctor didn’t play the game, it wasn’t a problem:  Michael Jackson’s handlers, it is alleged, merely went “doctor-shopping” anew, quickly filling the drug need vacuum. 

Drug and law enforcement detectives are now working day and night reviewing Michael Jackson’s prescription drug history and are feverishly on the hunt for his many former doctors throughout the world, especially in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. 

Dr. Conrad Murray from Las Vegas, with offices also in Texas and California, who regularly makes house calls to many high-profile clients, including those in Washingon and New York, is the doctor at the heart of controversy and who was admittedly administering care to Jackson in his Holmby Hills residence.   A lawyer for the physician said Dr. Murray did not administer Demerol or other life-threatening, powerful drugs and those reports were “absolutely false.” 

“There was no Demerol. No OxyContin,” Edward Chernoff, the attorney for Dr. Conrad Murray, told The Times. Murray had not “furnished or prescribed” Jackson with Demerol, the lawyer said. 

At least that’s the proper thing to say, since, according to federal drug regulations, Dr. Murray couldn’t legally prescribe even a powerful cough medicine for the King of Pop in California, and he couldn’t go to the pharmacy to get drugs for him, either. 

Federal authorities recently told FOXNews.com that Dr. Conrad Murray is not licensed to administer certain levels of controlled medications in the state, and that if he gave Demerol or Oxycontin to Jackson, as has been reported, it would have been illegal. 

Investigators with the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office removed two bags filled with prescription medications from Jackson’s Holmby Hills home. Among the drugs recovered were bottles of Diprivan, at least some of which were found without labels indicating where they came from, law enforcement sources told FOXNews.com. 

At least two of Jackson’s doctors – Dr. Arnold Klein and Dr. Conrad Murray – who were cooperative with authorities in the beginning are now hindering the investigation into Michael Jackson’s death, sources tell TMZ. 

They have turned over some of Jackson’s medical records but not his entire file, as sought by the L.A. County Coroner’s office. 

As the investigation unfolds, Michael’s drug usage is appearing increasingly grim. 

One of Michael’s drivers reportedly told Coroner’s office officials that the singer was visiting Dr. Klein more than once in a week, spending as many as 3-4 hours in his office and appearing disoriented while leaving. 

During Michael’s child molestation case investigation a bodyguard had similarly told the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s deputies in 2004 that Michael appeared disoriented when leaving doctors’ offices, including those of Klien. 

Records of that investigation reveal that the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s deputies recovered a large quantity of drugs from Jackson’s Neverland Ranch, including IV stands and oxygen tanks, consistent with the use of Diprivan. 

Amongst the documents recovered was a letter dated July 21, 2002 from a Dr. Alex Farshchian recommending that Michael use the drug Buprenex instead of Demerol because Buprenex was less addictive. 

A preliminary toxicology report submitted to the Coroner’s office says Michael Jackson had lethal levels of painkiller Demerol and heroin substitute methadone in his body at the time of his death, reports UK’s The Sun. 

It is likely that the investigation into the death of the singer on June 25 will ultimately result in manslaughter or homicide charges.

Michael also had very high levels of the OTC anxiety drug Xanax, high levels of Dilaud, a painkiller to numb post surgery pains and lower levels of other drugs such as the potent pain killer Fentanyl, Vicodin, Valium and Ambien.

Traces of Propofol, an anesthetic administered only in hospitals, were also found. The drug is rapidly absorbed by the body and is practically undetectable within 20 minutes of a single dose.

The drug levels found in his body could have killed any normal person instantly, but Michael was probably still walking around because he had developed some immunity following years of abuse.

Adding fuel to the speculative fire, Jackson’s’ outspoken father, Joe Jackson, recently told ABC New in an interview that he believed “foul play” was involved in his son’s death, but did not elaborate in the interview aired Friday on “Good Morning America.”

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