Marijuana is known for being a natural plant that, unlike almost all other recreational drugs, has very few adverse side effects. The fact that marijuana comes from a plant is one of the main reasons it has become such a popular drug.
What most people might not know is that there is such a thing as synthetic marijuana — created as a legal workaround. At the time it was created, people thought it was a healthier alternative to the real deal.
While there may be some benefits to synthetic marijuana, it is not always clear what exactly you are smoking and the effects that it could have. There has been an increasing number of cases of people who have had adverse and even life-threatening reactions to synthetic marijuana laced with Raid.
Most people know Raid as a major brand of bug spray. People use it to keep pests at bay and it is not something that you would ever think of consuming. So, let’s take a look at the scary side of synthetic marijuana and why it is so dangerous.
KD – What Is It, and Why Is It Dangerous?
KD is a mix of marijuana, tobacco, and synthetic marijuana containing Raid. The effects of this deadly combination act so fast on your body that several emergency responders had found people to still be holding the drug part way through using it when they passed out.
In many cases, emergency teams have described finding people in an almost zombie-like state. Just a few puffs of KD seems to be enough to slow your movements and cause you to lose control of essential bodily functions, resulting in horror story style drooling.
What Are the Effects of Smoking Raid?
When Raid, or other forms of bug spray, enters your body, it can affect the neurotransmitters in your brain, causing some severe side effects.
Messages are continually being sent between your brain and the rest of your body, ensuring that everything can work in harmony together. Nerve cells within the brain send electrical signals that carry messages to the rest of your body.
Once a nerve has sent a message, it then takes a short break to recover. Raid is thought to prevent the nerves within your brain from taking these short breaks, meaning that they do not have time to recover.
When you use it on insects, Raid can paralyze and even kill. While the effects of Raid in small doses might not be quite as dangerous to humans, it is still able to cause damage. When users take it in larger doses, the effects of Raid can cause pretty terrifying effects.
In mild cases, people have reported experiencing numbness and tingling in their limbs, as well as twitching and tremors. In more extreme cases, people have suffered seizures and even been left in a coma as a result of consuming Raid.
Smoking Raid can also have a negative effect on your throat and respiratory system. In small doses, Raid can cause a sore throat and cold-like symptoms, but in larger doses, it can lead to long-term breathing problems.
Can the Effects of Raid Be Treated?
If you smoke synthetic marijuana and start to experience negative effects that you would not normally expect, it is always a good idea to seek immediate medical advice. Doctors can treat the impacts of Raid, but each case will be slightly different.
Even more worryingly, standard drug tests cannot detect Raid. For emergency responders, this means that symptoms and blood pressure is all that they have to judge the seriousness of the situation.
To prevent long-term damage being caused to the nerves in your brain, doctors might give you a drug that slows down the speed at which your neurotransmitters fire. By using drugs to temporarily reduce the rate at which messages are sent around your body, the nerves within your brain are given a chance to repair themselves and reduce the risk of permanent damage.
To manage breathing problems caused by Raid, doctors may place you on a ventilator. They will also keep you under observation until the chemicals are able to work their way through your body and your breathing returns to normal.
Raid is a highly addictive substance, and despite its potentially life-threatening effects, there have been cases of people repeatedly using the drug shortly after leaving the hospital.
The Scary Side of Pot
Marijuana laced with Raid is not the only thing to fear when using pot, especially if you are buying it from a less than a legal source. There are, in fact, several horror stories that might start with the desire to experience a pleasant high but end with a trip to the ER.
A 70-year-old man recently made news headlines after overdosing on a marijuana lollipop in the hope of treating his insomnia. Instead of helping him drift off to sleep peacefully, he instead experienced hallucinations, before suffering from a heart attack.
It turned out that the lollipop contained 12 times the amount of THC that you would find in a regular joint and that it was not meant to be eaten in one sitting. Luckily, the man survived to tell the story.
Horror stories such as the heart attack lollipop are much more common than you might think. Research has shown that smoking large doses of marijuana can often result in terrifying hallucinations and actions that you might later regret.
Luckily, not all of these stories end with a heart attack and a trip to hospital; most remain secrets kept between friends, of nights they agree never to mention again. To ensure that you never have to experience the scary side of THC or the potentially life-changing effects of chemicals such as Raid, it is always a good idea to stick to lower doses and generally avoid synthetic marijuana.
