HUTCHINSON, Kansas – On March 18, you will no longer be able to buy K2 in Kansas. Governor Mark Parkinson signed legislation Wednesday outlawing specific chemical compounds in the synthetic herbal mixture that mimics effects similar to marijuana. But a store in Hutchinson is already selling alternatives to the drug.
It looks like marijuana and works like it too. And soon the synthetic substance will also be banned just like the drug it mimics.
“I knew it would pass, I mean after all we're in Kansas,” said Don Gregg, owner of Cornerstone Gift Shop in Hutchinson.
While Gregg will no longer sell K-2, he is offering alternatives – two other herbal blends called “Maui Hybrid” and “Hawaiian Haze”.
“It contains no marijuana, no THC manmade or otherwise, it's not a hallucinogenic in any fashion,” Gregg said.
Because it doesn’t contain any of the chemical compounds reportedly found in K-2, Gregg says the herbal mixtures are legal to sell. In fact, they’re so popular he can’t keep them in the store. He says the customers buying the products are those seeking relief from chronic pain.
“They can't afford prescription drugs such as for cancer treatment and other severe pains, so they turn to an alternative product, a legal alternative product," said Gregg.
But it could only be a matter of time before there are restrictions on the substances found in those alternatives much like the limitations put on the sale of pseudoephedrine, the primary ingredient used to make the illegal drug, meth. But until then Gregg will continue to sell the legal herbal blends for customers, he says, need them.
