Among kids, synthetic pot — known colloquially as K2 or spice — is often viewed as a safe, legal version of marijuana. But drug experts and users of the drug themselves have said spice can produce severe side effects.

On the online drug forum Erowid.org, where users can post and catalog their own experiences on a variety of drugs, some users say smoking spice is similar to marijuana — with one user reporting that the experience was “100 percent comparable” to smoking pot. But others have reported panic attacks, disassociation and nausea.

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