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| The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan |
SAN DIEGO -- The Navy's war on the synthetic drug called Spice is
continuing, with an announcement Monday that it is discharging 28
Sailors assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan for using it.
The
announcement comes only a month after a similar investigation into
illegal drug use led to the dismissal of 64 other Sailors from the San
Diego-based U.S. Third Fleet that includes the Reagan. Some of the
64 were assigned to the USS Carl Vinson, the carrier from which Osama
bin Laden was buried at sea. The 28 Sailors were part of six probes
conducted by the Navy in the past month. The Navy has banned the use of fake pot, and officials have been aggressively investigating its use among Sailors.
The drug is a mixture of herbs and chemicals that mimic the
active ingredient in marijuana but with more serious side effects that
can include headaches, seizures, numbness or paralysis. Spice
first appeared in Europe before being introduced in the United States
and was temporarily banned by the Drug Enforcement Administration last
year before being added to the federal government's list of banned
substances in March.
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| Take an herbal plant mixture, soak it in a cocktail of chemicals and you
get some “incense” that, essentially, mimics the effects of cannabis.
It’s called “Spice”. |
Following the earlier bust that included
Sailors from the Vinson the Navy launched a fleetwide campaign against
Spice, which mimics the effects of marijuana. The information
campaign included a video and posters distributed to Navy bases around
the world, the newspaper Stars & Stripes reported on Nov. 9. The
synthetic drug can be mixed with completely different and very hazardous
additives, according to the video.
"Spice causes elevated blood
pressure, tremor, seizures, vomiting, abdominal pain and more,"
according to Navy Medicine’s website.
"Several reported episodes of
heart damage have been reported with Spice use."
