Drug policy in Connecticut can help protect citizens

The recent overdoses on the New Haven Green points to a stark reality in our public policy: drug prohibition comes with dramatically risky consequences. One culprit in these overdoses was a drug called K2 — often confusingly labeled “synthetic marijuana” — in some cases possibly laced with fentanyl, an opioid more potent than heroin. Another culprit is an illegal drug market built on public policy mistakes and the dangerous behavior of drug dealers.

However, the events in New Haven highlight the risks of an illegal drug market, and the benefits of public policy reforms like marijuana legalization. This is not to say that in a place with legal marijuana, a tragedy like New Haven saw would not occur. K2 is a very different drug than marijuana, and even under a legal marijuana system there will still be an appetite among some for black market products.

Yet, in a system in which marijuana is illegal — despite public opinion in Connecticut calling for legalization — people are left with black market options. For some, that process is relatively safe: growing it themselves or buying it from a trusted friend. In other cases, it is less safe: purchasing from a lesser known dealer. Buying on an illegal market has significant risks beyond breaking the law. A buyer is purchasing a product without knowledge of the substance. How potent is it? Is it actually the substance I want? Has it been laced or adulterated? Was it grown or produced in a safe environment? What are the risks of consuming it? What will the experience be like when I consume it?

K2, unlike marijuana, is not a plant; it’s a chemical. And its producers are not chemists.

Often, there are production errors that can be deadly, creating extremely toxic substances with significant and deadly risks. K2 is labeled “synthetic marijuana” because it can interact with the same receptors in the human body that cannabis does (endocannabinoid receptors), but with very few of the same results. K2 tends to hyper-activate those receptors, while marijuana partially activates them. I have heard it described as the difference between painting with a brush and throwing a can of paint at a wall. And because the production of K2 comes with no information to the consumer about potency and the only way producers know they have made a mistake is when customers start overdosing, it makes the drug all that more dangerous.

Marijuana produced in a legal system does not face those same risks. It is cultivated and processed under tight regulations, ensuring that the consumer knows exactly what they are getting. The potency of the product is written on the label in easy-to-understand terms. If a batch of legal marijuana is adulterated, inconsistent with regulations, or significantly different than the producer had planned, the product will not come to market. Legal marijuana producers do not lace their product with other drugs like fentanyl.

Finally, those producers — unlike illegal dealers — do not have an incentive to push customers to other, harder drugs.

While the events on the Green may make some throw their hands up about issues like marijuana legalization, that’s the easy response. The more effective response would be to ask how drug policy in Connecticut can become more rational in ways that help protect the state’s citizens.