Synthetic cannabis

Synthetic cannabis has been much in the public spotlight recently, as increasingly disturbing stories about its negative effects have been related by health professionals, police, parents and users themselves.

Zombie-like youth, high on a ''dirty drug'', with twitching muscles and slurred speech, are changing the work of social service staff in Dunedin, Otago Adventure Development counsellor Scott Blair says.

Smoking K2 before swimming may have contributed to the death of a freezing worker, a coroner, who wants synthetic cannabis products made illegal, says.

Dairies, service stations and grocery stores will automatically be banned from selling synthetic cannabis and other legal highs from as early as July.

K2 will be voluntarily withdrawn from sale - at a cost of millions of dollars to the manufacturer of the synthetic cannabis product - but the announcement has been greeted with scepticism.

Staff at a synthetic cannabis store in Auckland cowered behind a counter as 100 people gathered outside to protest the sale of legal highs today.

Some Dunedin dairy owners are making nearly $1000 a day in profits from selling synthetic cannabis, and will continue to do so until legislative change takes effect in August, police say.

Alexandra police are fielding a big increase in calls from people concerned about the use of synthetic cannabis products and the availability of the product in the district.

A reformulated version of K2 is already appearing on dairy shelves, a day after the older version of the synthetic cannabis product had to be removed from sale.

An Oamaru teenager who ended up with serious burns while playing with petrol after using the legal-high product K2 is calling for synthetic cannabis to be banned, and says he will be on the street, holding a protest placard himself, as soon as he can walk.