I write this report partially to avoid focusing on a paper due in the next few hours, but mostly because I feel there is a lack of reports by experienced users of so-called 'spice'.

As someone who has smoked spice every day for over a year, I feel at least somewhat qualified to speak intelligently on it. First of all, the very name spice is a bit of a misnomer and is quite misleading. For those who don't know, spice is like Kleenex or Xerox; it is a brand name that has been appropriated and used to describe an entire range of products.

The problem with this is that spice varies drastically among brands due to the differences in chemical compositions between them. I have smoked Spice, K-2, King Karma Extreme, Wet, Black Lotus Elite, G-4, G-20, Mad Hatter, Zombie Matter, Demon, Sweet Lucy, and many others. They can vary in potency to the point of being orders of magnitude apart.

With that introduction, allow me to relate to you my experience smoking spice. When I say smoke, I mean my friend and I would rip through three grams smoking nothing but gravity bongs in a single night. I do not encourage anyone to do this as studies on the long term effects are nonexistent, but I personally deemed it an acceptable risk. We started after getting bored of weed and hearing that there was a new drug sold in head shops. We purchased some, were disappointed to receive nothing more than a mild stoned effect and a headache, and promptly dropped it.

Jobs, however, and related drug testing soon caused us to return curiously. I cannot say for a fact and it is only a sneaking suspicion, but in my experience it seems new brands of spice are only getting stronger. I have had brands vary from having me feel absolutely nothing to being convinced I was going to die.

The rest of this report will deal with the latter kinds, as they're the only ones that interest me.

There is no better example for intense spice than the discontinued Wet, manufactured by Black Lotus Blends. Wet is...something else. It feels as though it is alive in you. But more on that later. Henceforth, when I say spice assume I mean Wet or something of similar strength. The way I would describe it to someone off the top of my head is weed cut with a fair amount of salvia. The high is much like weed but has thorny edges when the dosage is increased, and is also shorter than weed in my experience (around 1 hour for main effects). The paranoia is much more prevalent here, and my common experience along with friends is that it makes me feel like the most goofy, pathetic, despicable version of myself. My heart rate increases and I have seen grown men on the floor crying to be taken to a hospital because they believe they are having a heart attack. It can give the acute sense that something is wrong with you, though you might not be able to describe what exactly. This leads me to my next point: water. On spice it is probably my best friend and as a lasting remnant of my time spent smoking it I always carry a bottle around filled with water. Perhaps most notably though, spice causes extreme forgetfulness far beyond that of marijuana. Not only is this effect noticeable when high, but the next day I often struggle to remember large portions of the day before.

Why then, would I consume so frequently a drug with such negative side effects? Because spice, when smoked in quantity, almost becomes a lifestyle. The way I like to describe it is that weed changes you into a slightly altered version of yourself, while spice is like creating an entire other entity inside you that, if you allow it to get in your head, will be singly focused on your destruction. It is as if a piece of my mind has separated beyond my control or knowing, but can still affect my thoughts and is generally bent on sabotage. The feeling is quite trippy and, I would argue, slightly psychologically addicting. Every hit is like an ordeal or challenge that I am subjecting myself to. In reference to the paranoia, spice has a crafty way of instantly “drawing me in.” What I mean by this is that I might think idly to myself: “I wonder when that next test is.” INSTANTANEOUSLY I will sit bolt upright and my thought process becomes “Oh my god I missed the test it was yesterday I’m going to fail what’s happening why did I do this to myself if only I hadn’t gotten high.” I will pause and be amazed that, even after experiencing it so many times, somehow it still gets me. I almost have to call the spice on its bullshit and reason with it for me to feel as though it is 'on my side.' It's like a bully; it can be an asshole if I show weakness but solidity and firmness transforms it almost into a friend.

Besides all of these abstractions, spice in general is like weed but with an undercurrent of psychedelic/dissociative properties. It puts me in a state of mind that is difficult to explain without experiencing. I have taken shrooms, LSD, salvia, DXM, ketamine, and countless others but none of these quite compare to the feeling I get.

For over a year, until quite recently in fact, I smoked at least ten gravs a day. Spice makes me lazy, and I went from having over a 3.0 GPA in previous semesters to not knowing if I will pass my classes this semester. I see my friends much less than I used to. I’ve lost interest in doing any activities unless I am on spice when I do them. These are the main reasons that I have stopped, and that lack of continued use has caused me to feel as though I am rising from a haze. Much of the past year is a blur to me. I don’t know if spice is physically addictive, but I would not be surprised to learn it is. When I still used consistently and would run out, my thoughts would instant turn to buying more. I would spend my last $20 on the next gram and remember on my way out of the store that I was supposed to put $10 of gas in my car that day. I suppose this could just be me forgetting courtesy of smoking so much, but in retrospect it is almost as if my thinking was altered somehow.

I did not intend for this report to become solely a general account of my experience. I had specific instances I planned to write about in detail, but decided against it due to length and relevancy concerns. Honestly, I feel I can make the most impact simply by documenting spice’s significant departures from marijuana. Make no mistake: they are NOT the same drug.

If you are thinking of trying a potent brand of spice, please heed my words first:

• It may benefit you not to go into it with arrogance. I have a friend who smokes an eighth a week of weed and a single grav [of Spice] put him on the ground, unable to speak to us, in intense pain (in his head, I must clarify) for around 30 minutes.
• If you do take it and start to panic, I have found that sitting up with a straight back, taking a deep breath, and then taking a sip of WATER (never forget, it literally feels like it glows inside me) has helped me greatly. Remember and frequently remind yourself that it will be over before you know it (less than an hour).
• Even after smoking every day for a year, I was still occasionally (though rarely) subjected to panic attacks/freakouts. It seems to occur most often in the morning and when I am alone.
• I mentioned I still need water frequently as a lasting remnant, but I should also mention that, for now, I seem to have 100% lost the ability to feel the effects of marijuana. I don’t know if this is just something psychological or an effect of the drug, but it does nothing for me anymore.

Thanks for reading.