K2 Closer to Being Outlawed

Synthetic pot, also known as K2, is one step closer to being outlawed in Texas after proposed legislation that would add it to the list of illegal controlled substances tentatively passed the Texas House today.

House bill 597 by state Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Plano, the companion to SB 331 by Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, would create a new penalty group under the Health and Safety Code that includes the chemicals that make up K2. Possession or distribution of less than two ounces of the compound would be a class B misdemeanor, two to four ounces a class A misdemeanor, and possession of four ounces to five pounds a state jail felony. Shapiro's bill was passed out of the senate in March.

Shapiro called the substance a “growing threat” when she filed the legislation in January.

“This herbal incense in name only is having detrimental effects on the people using it, a significant number of whom are young people,” she said in a statement.

Upon final passage, Texas will join at least 16 other states in banning the substance, which according to The New York Times, “has sent users to emergency rooms across the country complaining of everything from elevated heart rates and paranoia to vomiting and hallucinations.”