Interviewer: What are the common synthetic drugs that are out there and what are they mimicking?

William Kroger: The common synthetic drugs out there right now are mimicking marijuana, synthetic marijuana type drugs which use chemicals such as JWH018 or URL144 or AM2201 they are considered illegal by the federal government. The way they make it usable is by taking these powder formulas and mixing it with another herbs, it is then packaged and sold at smoke shops or mini marts for the most part.

The Criminal Elements try to Stay a Step Ahead of the Government by Changing the Chemicals to Avoid Prosecution

Interviewer: Is the blend always the same? Do people try to change the chemicals that aren't regulated and make drugs like that?

William Kroger: Absolutely. They try to keep a step ahead of the government by changing the chemicals. They stop selling the ones that are illegal and they move on to other chemical compounds and that are changed in molecular structure so it doesn't resemble the illegal substance structurally.

Among Synthetic Drugs, Methamphetamine has the Worst Side-Effects on a User

Interviewer: Do you see people that have adverse reaction to these drugs; do they get very sick or paranoid or die?

William Kroger: I don't see it any more than any drugs; I think probably Methamphetamine is the worst drug out there with the worst side effects. I don't think any synthetic drugs comes anywhere close to being as bad as Methamphetamine is or other drugs of that type.

The Primary Reason That People are Attracted to the use of Synthetic Drugs

Interviewer: Why do people even use these synthetics? There's medical marijuana in southern California and there are a lot of other drugs there, what's the attraction?

William Kroger: The initial attraction was synthetic drugs, when they came out, were actually produced by a doctor doing some research on pain relief for cancer patients. It was a cannabis related molecule that he manufactured so that it wouldn't give you the psychotropic affect but it would give you more of the pain relieving affect. What happened is people got knowledge of this, and the reason it became so popular was because people in the military and on court supervision could use it and it wouldn't show up on any kind of a urine test, so they could be under the influence or using those on the daily basis and nobody would know about it because it wouldn't show up positive for illegal drugs.

The Common Commercial Names Used to Market Synthetic Drugs in California

Interviewer: What are some of the commercial names?

William Kroger: K2, Spice, King Kong, Mr. Nice Guy, Scooby Snacks, Sky High, the names go on and on. It's typically marketed in the area of 3.5 gram bag or sometimes it's sold by gram bags but to expand on your question about why people use it rather than medical marijuana; medical marijuana is not legal in all states and there are really only a handful of states that allow recreational use of marijuana. Some states like California just don't prosecute marijuana as much as most places do. When you're looking back towards the Midwest or the fly-over people, they don't have sources or they don't have all the medical grades of marijuana or all the top graded marijuana that the other states typically have. So they've got to go for an alternative and it seems that the synthetics are more popular in places like Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota, all those places where they don't really have strains of marijuana.