Much cheaper than marijuana, which is now legal in the District, synthetic marijuana — sold on street corners and gas stations — is a variety of herbal mixtures that produce experiences similar to cannabis. The District outlawed the drug in 2012. Sold under many names, including K2, fake weed, Yucatan Fire, Skunk, Moon Rocks, Bizarro and others, labeled potpourri or "not for human consumption", these products contain dried, shredded plant material and chemicals, usually from China, that are responsible for their mind-altering effects.
In August 2015, a Muslim man from the neighborhood around First Hijrah Foundation was arrested in the largest synthetic drug bust in North West DC. After the arrest, local Muslim leaders are taking this menace head on. The community is shaken up by the arrest and charges.
“It is a very dangerous and addictive drug,” says Mahdi Leroy Thorpe, a Muslim community activist who has won several congressional awards for his work in shutting down local crack houses. Thorpe has a strong relationship with the police department, helping fight drugs and crime. He is a former DC Advisory Neighborhood Commission member and licensed social worker.
DC police credits Thorpe's faith-based citizens patrol – founded in 1988 – with ‘rousting the drug dealers and restoring a measure of public safety to the neighborhood.’
Synthetic marijuana was legal to sell before being outlawed three years ago. According to charging documents, one of the men arrested in the August bust admitted that he distributed the drug to dealers on various street corners within Washington, DC. The drug can be rolled up into a cigarette and some of the businesses sell this paper. It sells for $5 a packet and $2 for a single rolled cigarette. It can also be smoked in a pipe and those pipes are also sold by businesses in the Washington area.
According to police officials, this shipment was headed to the gas stations and convenience stores in the District. The drug is linked to the heightened violence over the summer in the district, police stated in a press conference.
This includes the gruesome Fourth of July fatal stabbing by an allegedly high man on the Metro, “As I have said, we must intercept illegal drugs at the source. The seizure of such a large amount of synthetic drugs is a relief to both the MPD and the community,” said Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier in a press release. “The hard investigative work that our members pride themselves on has potentially saved countless lives and helped to stem the violence that goes hand in hand with the selling and consumption of illegal drugs.”
“It's the stuff that's sprayed on them [that] is so dangerous and so lethal. We know most of it, 95 percent of it, comes from China.” shares Dr Rosenberg of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
In June 2015, at least 11 people overdosed in one day on Bizarro, near the Community for Creative Non-Violence (CCNV) at 425 2nd St. NW, officials said. The 1,350-Bed Federal City Shelter run by the CCNV is the largest shelter in the US. Here a Muslim guard, Abdul Mateen, was attacked several times by users of the drug. The executive director of the shelter has witnessed at least 10 violent incidents that he says were linked to synthetic drugs since the start of 2015. One recent evening a user from across the street attacked Abdul Mateen with a knife when the guard tried to expel him from the lobby. “[K-2] sends a lot of people to the hospital and they are involved in a lot of violent crime,” says Thorpe. Doctors and police say the drugs often make people so psychotic, they have to be held down by four or more people.
Abdul Mateen has had stitches over his eye, he was also hit on the back with a bat.
Some of the packaging has cartoons on it, is called Scooby Snax, which make it look harmless and entices young teens. Another selling point is that the chemicals used in K-2 are not easily detected in standard drug tests.
“We want educate our community about the dangers of the drug,”says Thorpe. Some people may be greedy and may not know the damage this drug causes. It is destroying our own community and affecting our children, he says passionately. The risk is too great is Thorpe’s message to the community: store owners will be prosecuted if caught and that could destroy your family and business. “Muslims should not be involved in the sale of this drug,” he says.
DC officials are pressing hard on corner stores selling K-2 or drug paraphernalia. Many of these stores are owned by immigrants of various ethnicities, many who happen to be from Ethiopia. A gas station on Georgia Avenue is tipped as one of the stores selling the drug. The Muslim Link attempted to speak to the owner, but was not granted an interview.
“A bags of synthetic drugs picked up in Howard County, Maryland enrouteto Washington DC. The drugs were estimated to be worth $2.3 million. Photo from Metropolitan Police Department.
"Part of what people don't understand is that they are not only destroying other people’s families they are also destroying their own,” says Thorpe about the business men who sell the shiny packets in their stores.
The First Hijrah Foundation masjid located on 4324 Georgia Avenue hosted a contingent of police at the behest of Thorpe. The imam of the masjid, Sheikh Khaled Omar, has promised activists that he will address this topic in halaqahs, circles of learning, as the money earned from these exchanges are haram. This is the first time that anyone from the First Hijrah community has reached out to the police department, overcoming fears. “This meeting is where we are bonding together and using law enforcement to protect our community,” says Thorpe.
The DC police narcotics units responsible for the drug bust, sent by Commander Robin Hoey, educated the small group of leaders on the effects of the drugs. Attending was the First Hijrah President Haji Najib Mohammed. With Muslims leading the way in educating the community, doors will open for Christians Ethiopians to also open this dialogue within their congregation, says Thorpe.
Activist and imam at the DC Jail, who was also present at the meeting, Abdul Majeed Haynes is worried about the haram money coming into the community and the blessings that are removed because of this. “This is not exclusively an Ethiopian issue, this is an Ummah issue about haram businesses. The Pakistanis, Indians, and Bangladeshis are the Ethiopians of Baltimore; they run the gas stations and cornerstones there. So the key is to start with the leadership following the Prophetic Tradition,” he says.
DC Attorney General Karl Racine has recently stated he will shut down any stores illegally selling synthetic drugs.
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