Last weekend the Public Force made the largest seizure of synthetic marijuana, known as K12 or ‘Spice’, in a location near Alajuelita School.
Guillermo Araya, director of the Costa Rican Drug Institute (ICD), explained that the substance’s consumption is increasing in the country.
The Ministry of Public Security (MPS), made 2 seizures of this drug,
we made the largest seizure (20 doses) during the weekend and in a previous operation we found 4 packages,”
declared Carlos Hidalgo spokesman of the MPS.
This drug comes from Europe and simulates the effect of natural cannabis or marijuana. It is synthetic but it has an herbal base along with added chemicals that enhance the effects of the drug. Its effects will depend on how people assimilate it, due to their physical and emotional state.
Araya thinks that regular drug abusers are the ones that consume K12. However, Andrea Aguirre, a psychologist from Clinica Bíblica, said that adolescents are also at risk due to”fashion” and the way K12 is known: as a product of lesser effect.
ICD director said that they have no idea of the origin of the substance.
It is a drug they are selling in a package under a brand, but we do not know what kind of substances it has, traffickers can camouflage it or incorporate many dangerous chemicals in it. They offer it with a cheap price, but they could be selling any other drug,”
announced Araya.
The effects are associated with abrupt psychotic actions. It is difficult to detect through a urine exam. It is something new in the country, but in Europe it has many years of use”,
explained Luis Eduardo Sandí, director of the Institute of Alcoholism and Drug Dependency (IAFA).
Other effects include an increased perception of situations and surrounding objects, symptoms of psychosis, such as delusions, disconnection from reality, anxiety, extreme paranoia, hallucinations, increased heart rate, suicidal thoughts and memory loss.
Doctor Sandí explained that if a peson is under these effects, he or she has to be take to a psychiatric hospital because they can endanger their life or to hurt people around them.