'Spicy' Sailors Busted for Using Synthetic Marijuana. Navy to Expel 28 Sailors for Illegal Drug Use.

Spice: It's Not Worth It

The Navy announced Monday that it plans to kick out 28 sailors assigned to the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan for using a synthetic drug called Spice that mimics marijuana.

The announcement comes only a month after a similar investigation into illegal drug use led to the dismissal of 64 other sailors — also from the San Diego-based U.S. Third Fleet, which includes the Reagan.

Some of the 64 were assigned to the Carl Vinson, the carrier from which Osama bin Laden was buried at sea.

The 28 sailors were part of six probes conducted by the Navy in the past month.

The Navy has banned the use of fake pot, and officials have been aggressively investigating its use among sailors.

The drug is a mixture of herbs and chemicals that mimic the active ingredient in marijuana but with side effects that can include headaches, seizures, numbness or paralysis.

The Navy has spent the past year and a half battling the spread of the new designer drug, which at first was legal and couldn’t be detected by commonly used drug tests. Recently, the military announced it had the ability to test for a limited number of these substances.

Spice first appeared in Europe before being introduced in the United States. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration named it as a controlled substance on March 1 in an emergency action, therefore making it illegal for over-the-counter sales.

The DEA says the fake pot is typically sprayed on plant material that is meant to be smoked. It had been sold in small packets over the Internet and in tobacco and smoke shops, drug paraphernalia shops, gas stations and convenience stores as herbal incense.

Concern over Spice in the military has been growing.

The Marine Corps banned it in September 2008. In July 2009, 15 sailors aboard aircraft carrier George Washington were discharged for taking Spice, leading to a Navy-wide ban on the drug in March 2010.

In January, seven students were discharged from the U.S. Naval Academy because of Spice use.

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