DEA Warns Users as Some States Ban New Synthetic Marijuana Product

WASHINGTON - It is basically fake pot. A new synthetic substance being marketed as incense is being smoked recreationally. Some users are hallucinating and turning up in emergency rooms around the country.

Missouri has just become the eighth state to ban possession and use of a marijuana substitute called K2. It has other names, like Spice, Demon and Genie.

FOX 5 found K2 and a similar product called Blaze at a tobacco store in Woodbridge, Va.

The Drug Enforcement Administration is warning users, saying no one knows what chemicals are actually contained in the substance.

It looks like marijuana, but is made up of chemicals that came out of a research lab at Clemson University. It is often laced with herbs.

The DEA says it is dangerous. There are reports of people having near-death experiences. An Iowa man who took K2 died last month, and toxicologists and health professionals are studying that case to see if there is a cause and effect relationship.