The three of them take brief hits off their rolled joint and quickly retreat into their minds.
It isnβt pot theyβre smoking under a tamarisk tree at Santa Rita Park Friday morning. Itβs βSpiceβ β a synthetic drug that has taken over much of Tucsonβs homeless community and spread beyond.
Minutes pass. The woman who just moments ago was articulately explaining to me the attractions, effects and dangers of Spice has suddenly gone quiet, her eyes glossy and unseeing. Occasionally she remembers Iβm here and makes a comment.
βI still wish to represent myself accurately,β she says, then falls silent.
Gentle Ben, a man of about 50 whom Iβve known from his days in Veinte de Agosto Park downtown last year, starts bobbing in his chair after he takes a hit. His arms twitch. After a few minutes he falls forward, crashing head-first onto the bare ground. His friends turn him over and he just lays there, twitching and spitting foam. Five minutes later he turns over and vomits. His friends check on him again and talk about calling 911. But he hears that, and somehow is able to pull words from the recesses of his mind.
βNo-no-no-no-no. No 9-1-1,β he says. βYou lose me quick. I go bye-bye quick.β
They return to silence.
***
Spice has been around Tucson for at least five years, marketed at first as a legal, synthetic substance that mimicked the effects of marijuana.
In those days, the product was easily bought at stores and wasnβt so strong, users told me during three days of visits to places where Tucsonβs homeless people gather. One man called it βkindergarten weedβ that intoxicated people for only 15 minutes to a half hour.
Those times have changed, along with the product. Users describe the effects of todayβs Spice as hallucinogenic, like PCP.
Registered nurse Daniel Lopez has seen Spice take over in the last few months, while serving as a public-health worker at the Joel Valdez Main Library until last month.
βWhat Iβve seen in overdose is the people become uncoordinated. Theyβll pass out. Theyβll lose time,β he said. βAfter the point at which they come to, if they have overdosed, they wonβt remember anything. They wonβt be up and walking about. Theyβll be uncoordinated, belligerent, having psychotic features even.β
Over the last six months certain central Tucson parks and plazas have almost become emergency zones, with firefighters and police getting constant calls. I was in JΓ‘come Plaza Wednesday afternoon, outside the main library, when a librarian called 911 about a young man laying catatonic on a bench outside. His friends know him as βSmokeyβ and knew he was on Spice.
TPD Officer Charles Foley arrived, as did two Tucson Fire Department crews. Paramedic Levi Penrod said heβs responded to calls about Smokey at least 10 times and even remembered Smokeyβs usual vital signs. In June and July, the fire department responded to at least 60 calls for Spice overdoses per month, Capt. Barrett Baker said. This monthβs calls are on the same pace.
In July alone Tucson police responded to 158 Spice-related calls, Lt. Kevin Hall said. Most of them were from Ronstadt and Laos transit centers. In fact, one of the lesser issues in the Sun Tran driversβ strike is the increasing number of Spiced-out passengers who show up on the bus unable to function.
But many homeless people, especially older ones, avoid smoking Spice or even being around users. They donβt like the effects, and some users have had their belongings stolen while they were high.
***
Before she smokes Friday morning, the woman at Santa Rita Park eagerly explains to me the ups and downs of Spice. (She identifies herself as βHoly Helβ β βone Lβ; none of the users I meet give me their full names.)
Holy Hel, who says she has serious mental illness, tells me when she has smoked she has seen her own past lives. She also has gained creativity, at least in her thoughts, though that creativity hasnβt amounted to anything tangible.
When Spice was legal, she says, there was some quality control and dependability to the product you were buying. Now, she says, you donβt know what effect it will have until you smoke it.
βAny hallucinogenic drug you take is a gamble,β she says. At times, βitβs brilliant,β but other times itβs scary.
Once, she says, βI thought I was losing my hearing. My hearing was enhanced to an incredible degree. I had an experience where things were exploding inside my head.β
As weβre talking a friend stops by and gives Holy Helβs boyfriend, Mountain Man, a $5 bill. Quickly a plan is hatched. I want to buy some Spice just to see how easy it is to obtain, not to use it. But instead, she suggests I go watch her buy, since I might look too straight to succeed at the purchase.
At a nearby smoke shop, Holy Hel asks the man behind the counter for a package of King Kong, showing him the $5 bill. He disappears briefly into the back and returns with a tiny baggy containing a tidbit of vegetable matter.
***
Laws changed after the appearance of Spice. All 50 states banned the cannabinoid compounds that were the active ingredients.
That didnβt deter manufacturers. They just tweaked the chemical compound so it was not covered by the laws β or at least their product fell into a gray area of the law.
Hall, of the Tucson police, said making a case against a seller of Spice requires sending the substance out for testing and finding that itβs an illegal compound. That can take a long time and make pursuing a case unworkable.
βItβs frustrating, the legal process we have to go through to get it tested before we can even effect an arrest or prosecute,β he said.
Dr. Mazda Shirazi, medical director of the Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center, noted that Spice is often labeled as βnot for human consumption,β which gives manufacturers and sellers another possible way out of trouble.
βWink wink,β he said. βItβs βnot for human use.β Itβs βpotpourri,β Itβs βincense.β β
Whatβs even more concerning is that use seems to be spreading to any group of people who are tested for drugs β probationers, parolees, people on rehab programs, even workers for the many employers who do drug testing. Thatβs because, with the chemical makeup of Spice constantly changing, most of these products canβt be detected by urinalysis.
βWhatβs very concerning to us is weβre seeing it among the blue collar population,β Hall said. βTheyβre smoking on their way home from work.β
Not only that, people are becoming addicted. While violence is not a common reaction to Spice, the effects of addiction itself are unpredictable. The killers of an elderly Tucson couple, Mary Louise and Erskin Fulgham, told police they were using Spice six times a day at $20 per bag.
βItβs more of a psychological addiction,β Lopez said. βIf you want to get blitzed and forget everything, thatβs a good way to do it. You lose whole chunks of time.β
***
Before smoking Friday morning, Gentle Ben tells me he went on βa very, very bad tripβ just three days earlier.
βI could hear everybody around me, but my vision was blurred. I was not in this reality. The drug was pulling me into an unreality,β he says. βIt scared the crap out of me.β
But the fear isnβt enough to stop him from taking his puffs this morning. As time wears on and he sits beside me in the dirt, vacantly, someone throws an orange at him. He canβt peel it, so I do it. Iβm hoping some liquid and sugar will wake him up.
βI gotta get rid of this high I got going on from smoking that little package,β he mumbles. βI went into another world.β
Mountain Man, though, has remained relatively alert throughout his trip, enjoying a bag of peanuts, wandering and chatting occasionally. To my surprise, more than an hour after the first round of hits, he pulls the tiny package out and thereβs still some inside.
A new group of friends has been gathering under the tree. He puts the bit of Spice in a pipe, lights up and passes it around.
Gentle Ben is still too unconscious to partake. But one of the newly arrived men, a live-wire cracking funny comments, takes a puff.
βIt wonβt work for you,β he teases me. βIf you do it, youβll end up in the CRCβ β the Crisis Response Center β βand Iβll visit you in your wheelchair.β
Then he tips sideways and starts convulsing. He sort of smiles and Iβm sure heβs teasing me again. But soon heβs laid out on the ground, his back arching tensely. Then he rolls over and vomits.
His friends look on with vacant concern.
