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A PATCHWORK OF BANS

Spice is outlawed in 18 states. In the 32 states where it can still be sold legally, spice is marketed as incense or potpourri because of its dangerous side effects: disorientation, vomiting, loss of motor control, hallucinations, an out-of-body sensation, rapid heart rate and seizures.

An Air Force-wide ban on all synthetic cannabinoids went into effect in June. Last year, 177 airmen received nonjudicial punishment for using spice, and another 83 faced courts-martial. A conviction carries a prison sentence of up to two years.

Before the new policy went into effect, the Air Force had to catch an airman with spice to take action.

“With the implementation of testing, officials intend to send a very clear message: use spice, and you may lose your career, end up in jail or both,” according to an announcement of the new drug policy posted on the surgeon general’s website.

Spice and other designer drugs first caught the attention of Air Force investigators in 2003, when they were canvassing Oklahoma shops that sold drug paraphernalia. In the seven years before the service acted, various major commands, units and bases banned spice and the Mexican herb salvia.

The Air Force followed the Navy in outlawing spice and salvia; the Navy put its ban in place about a year ago. The Air Force’s ban was not based on any known spike in spice or salvia use, a spokeswoman said at the time.

Before a test was developed, the Air Force relied on airmen telling their commanders if their colleagues were using drugs.

In an interview with Air Force Times last year, the commander of the 75th Air Base Wing at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, described the information sharing as “good airmen showing integrity.”

“The 19-, 20-year-olds, they’re getting it,” Col. Patrick Higby said. “They’re our eyes and ears when others aren’t doing the right thing.”

Higby and Chief Master Sgt. David Nordel, the 75th Air Base Wing command chief, have discussed the dangers of spice since November 2009, when Hill’s top officer signed a policy letter banning the substances. They discuss substance abuse with airmen arriving on base, at commander’s calls and at unit-level meetings.

Nordel wrote an article for the base newspaper describing spice as a ticket out of the Air Force.

“Spice has no place in or amongst our airmen,” he wrote last March. “We are working hard to eliminate its presence, and if you look around one day and someone isn’t there because they used spice, it means we are doing our job.”