A gram of this stuff will cost you about $10 in the Chicago suburbs.

In some stores, it’s in plain view. In other places, it’s pulled out from under the counter when requested.

It’s not for human consumption, according to its labels.

What is it, really?

That question has challenged authorities who are on the hunt for synthetic marijuana.

A man-made drug intended to mimic actual marijuana has popped up in stores across the country, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The substance is typically sold in small amounts, after being sprayed onto potpourri and incense.

Two Patch reporters last month bought various incense and potpourri products sold in amounts as small as one gram from local liquor and tobacco shops. There’s no easy way to identify these or any other substances as synthetic marijuana without lab testing.

“With the combination of them saying ‘Not for human consumption’ and what isn’t in it, they are still evading telling you what is actually in it,” said Special Agent Will Taylor, spokesman for the DEA’s Chicago Field Division.

U.S. drug officials say some people ignore the “Do not consume” labels on these incense and potpourri products and smoke them to get high. Some of the products are legal, others have been made illegal or banned outright in some states. Overseas manufacturers, by changing the chemical composition of synthetic marijuana, have been able to circumvent some efforts to ban the drug.

Authorities could not immediately confirm whether the products the two Patch reporters bought were legal, illegal, or whether they contained a form of synthetic marijuana. But customers of the local shops believed some of the items were indeed synthetic marijuana.

“I heard it can do a lot of things,” said a 21-year-old man in North Aurora. “It can make you vomit; it can give you seizures; it can do a lot of stuff, but it’s never done any of that to me.”

Readily Available

Editor’s note: Two reporters went separately into various stores, inquired and/or purchased the products without identifying themselves as reporters to the clerks. The Patch staffers identified themselves as reporters for all other parts of this story.

Here are the detailed accounts of what two Patch.com reporters purchased at various shops in Kane County. The reporters each went to a separate series of stores; they did not go to the same stores together. In most cases, the reporters asked the shop attendant or clerk if the store carried “any of that incense or potpourri stuff.”

The products cost anywhere from $8 to $20. All products were sold in one-gram quantities, except where noted.

The products were found mainly in liquor stores and tobacco shops. With one exception, Patch could not find similar incense or potpourri items at local gas stations. When asked, most of the baffled clerks at gas station convenience stores pointed to air fresheners for cars.

At stores where the products were purchased, all but one cashier honored a request for a receipt, but the printed receipts make no mention of the actual products. Descriptions on the receipts for purchases included “misc” (miscellaneous), “other,” or “News.”

Batavia

North Aurora

Aurora

St. Charles

Still Unknown, Still Legal

Notwithstanding what the reporters observed, authorities say it’s hard to declare a substance as synthetic marijuana or as illegal.

“Just because there’s a name brand, we have no idea ... what’s in them,” said Special Agent Taylor. “Without having a chemical analysis, we don’t know what chemical compounds are there.”

The only incense or potpourri-related substance the Kane County Sheriff’s Office has sent for lab testing is the one being investigated in the aftermath of a June 14 fatal vehicle crash in Batavia Township, said Pat Gengler, Sheriff’s Office spokesman.

Max Dobner, 19, of Aurora died in the Batavia Township crash. His mother, Karen Dobner, said that he smoked iAroma potpourri less than two hours before the crash. Karen Dobner thinks her youngest son might have been in a hallucinatory, panicked state of mind from the potpourri right before the crash.

Dobner and a friend on June 14 purchased the iAroma potpourri at the Cigar Box, a store inside the Westfield Fox Valley Shopping Mall in Aurora, according to Karen Dobner. After the crash, the friend gave Karen Dobner the remainder of the potpourri and a receipt for its purchase from the store. Karen Dobner said she gave the items to police.

Gengler confirmed the Kane County Sheriff's Office has a receipt for this case and sent the potpourri for testing. The investigation into Max Dobner's death is still ongoing, he said.

A Patch staffer on July 24 visited the store but did not identify himself as a reporter. The staffer asked a man behind the register if they had any potpourri or incense products. The man said that they stopped carrying the products recently but did not provide a reason why. The man was able to provide the Patch staffer with a URL for a website that offers the products.

At least one synthetic drug-related incident was reported recently in the Tri Cities.

On May 24, police responded to an alarm at Lundeen’s Discount Liquors, 610 E. Main St., St. Charles, and found one of the front windows smashed.

When the owners arrived, they reportedly told police they found 155 bottles of White Mamba missing. White Mamba is described as a type of plant food and as bath salts, according to the report. U.S. drug officials describe bath salts as products containing another designer drug that results in psychotic episodes, panic attacks and an increased heart rate. The report did not specify whether the White Mamba in this case was actually drugs.

The DEA in March put five of the most common chemical compounds for synthetic marijuana on its watch list. While the agency is looking into blocking the sale of all of the variants, for now every compound has to be named individually to be blacklisted at the federal level.

States can also pass laws to ban all forms, or analogs, of a substance, but not every state has exercised this option. Wisconsin has banned all forms. Illinois outlaws nine known, specific forms of synthetic marijuana but has no law banning all the variants. For more about the process of declaring a substance illegal, click here.

Gengler said if investigators suspected illegal substances were being sold, they would do surveillance and attempt to get some of the products tested.

“If it comes back as a legal substance, there’s no law against it,” Gengler said. “There’s no law we can arrest them for.”

St. Charles Patch Editor Nick Swedberg contributed to this report.

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