The Growth of K2 in Prison

I remember the first time I smoked K2 in prison — synthetic marijuana! It was in 2007, I was housed at the supermax prison in Huntsville, where the state of Texas carried out its executions. My cellmate worked as an orderly in the section that was reserved for transient prisoners. Every weekday, hundreds of prisoners were bussed into prison, enroute to a different facility, from all across the state.

Each day my cellmate returned back to the cell with all type of contraband that the transient prisoners provided him. One day he had methamphetamine, the next it was some designer strain of marijuana. That day it was something called K2.

“Jeremy, Jeremy,” my cellmate excitedly whispered after he entered the cell, “I hit a real lick today at work!”

“Oh yeah,” I responded nonchalantly, “What type of lick?”

“I got a bag of K2,” he answered.

“K2?” I asked dumbfounded “What the fuck is that?”

“It’s synthetic weed,” he answered! “Synthetic weed?” I replied still puzzled. “Yeah, it’s just like weed, the only difference is the guard can’t piss test you for it,” my cellmate whispered.

I had been no stranger to weed, having been an avid weed smoker since I was the age of 12. But, I had never heard of K2. However, my cellmate had my attention! The mere fact that prison officials had no test for it had my blood rushing. At that time, I had been in prison for nearly 20 consecutive years and during that time, prison officials had developed some very sophisticated ways to test for marijuana use. And, there were some very stiff consequences for those who tested positive. So, for a few years, I had refrained from getting high! I was stuck in a troubling quandary like a person who wanted to cheat on their taxes, but feared the federal prison time that came along with it if one got busted.

So there I was standing before my cellmate and he was confidently telling me that I could add a few extra dependents to my income tax return, and there was no way I could get caught. Count me in!

“Roll that shit up!” I instructed him. And, he did. To the Moon we went! Two incarcerated astronauts somewhere in the outer space, I thought to myself, “This K2 shit is like weed!” My cellmate had not just hit a lick with it, he struck gold!

Once again I was able to get high without the fear of being caught. I later discovered K2 was not illegal. In fact, anyone including every prison guard at the Huntsville Unit could grab a bag of it at any convenience store in town.

Over the next few years I watched — and, smoked — as K2 became the most dominant drug in Texas prison. Coupled with prison officials inability to test for it, and the guards ability to cop a bag at the local gas stations, K2 became the shit! Everyone was either smoking or selling it.

Then came the shift.

During the summer of 2019, a more potent and addictive form of K2 flooded the prison system like a Category 5 hurricane from the gulf. It was dangerous, destructive, and even deadly. Gone were the brief trips to Pluto, it was more like extended trips of “Who the fuck knows,” and/or “Will I Ever Get the Fuck Back?”

The synthetic weed we were once smoking was now synthetic crack! Synthetic ice? It was no longer a pastime jog to relax, it was now a full-fledged all-day sprint chasing the dragon. Guys who once prided themselves with maintaining a clean appearance, suddenly quit showering, stopped getting their hair cut, sold their shoes.

There was no time for anything that was not directly connected to getting another hit of K2. Cells that were normally stocked with all types of food items from the prison’s commissary were now empty. The common areas became Skid Row. Then the Covid-19 pandemic shut the prison down. For weeks, prisoners found themselves locked in a cell with another person. Little to no information was being distributed by the prison officials other than Covid-19 was real and killing motherfuckers. No school, no mental health c!asses, no movement at all for anyone!

There were countless death notifications, moments to gaze at your cellmate or the wall, and K2. People who previously didn’t smoke K2 began to “take a hit” to escape the numerous hardships that came with the Covid-19 Pandemic. While there have been numerous resources poured into various communities to assist with overcoming the Covid-19 Pandemic in free society, little has been done inside of prison. If the common areas of the prison were once Skid Row, post Covid-19 Pandemic it is now Zombie Land! It reminded me of when the crack epidemic hit my neighborhood in the late 1980’s. A once-dignified set of people had been relegated to being uncompromising dope fiends! K2, K2, K2!!!!! What was once “a lick ” had turned into shit! Pure destruction, creating a Pandemic within the Pandemic!