Products containing synthetic cannabinoids and psychosis

In June 2011, products containing synthetic cannabinoids were banned in Western Australia (Sydney Morning Herald, 2011; Daily Telegraph, 2011). Elsewhere, they are sold in tobacco shops and are widely available (Sydney Morning Herald, 2011; Daily Telegraph, 2011). These products are most commonly known as 'kronic' or 'kronic black' in Western Sydney, but are also known as 'spice', 'K2', 'purple haze', 'kaos', 'dream', and 'voodoo'. Often these products are sold as mixtures of herbs and they are of particular relevance to Australian mining communities where they are not detected by urine drug testing (Sydney Morning Herald, 2011). There have been several case reports published internationally associating these products with psychosis (Muller et al., 2010; Johnson et al., 2011; Schneir et al., 2011; Simmons et al., 2011).