Doctors say smoking herbal incense can be dangerous and risky.
People across the country and the Bay area are buying herbal incense products known as synthetic marijuana to smoke.
Tijana Saric, 20, said she got a weird reaction after smoking it and decided to give it up.
“At first, I would be fine,” Saric said. “But later on through the session of smoking, it would just make me feel kind of dizzy - my heart racing, paranoid. (I) was always scared to walk by myself back home.”
K-2 and Spice were banned by the State last year, so manufacturers changed their chemicals to get around the law.
Products such as Jazz, Hydro and other herbal incense products started appearing in corner stores and tobacco shops.
Bay News 9 Priority Health’s Dr. Randy Shuck says the chemicals are so potent in some mixtures, they can have the opposite effect of marijuana.
“With marijuana, usually you're relaxed, you're hungry and kind of mellow,” Dr. Shuck said. “In this case, you're usually anxious, you have problems with anxiety, you get anger issues, fast heart rates, sweats, and, in extreme cases, paranoia.”
Both the short-term and long-term effects from smoking it are unknown.
“I look at it as a very dangerous risk that you are taking,” Shuck said. “ If it says 'not for human consumption,' (which) means it has not been studied in humans. We don’t know (the) long-term effects. We don’t know short-term effects, we don’t know if it’s going to hurt you, kill you, make you feel better; the whole process is an unknown thing.”
The health impact is still a big question for doctors who are seeing patients show up with symptoms in local emergency rooms.
State Lawmakers have passed a new bill to ban the variations of herbal incense products being sold. The bill is waiting on Gov. Rick Scott's signature.