Dangerous new marijuana product looks like lip balm, packs big kick

Police say a potent new drug that looks like lip balm is exploding in popularity. PHOTO CREDIT: StuffStonersLike.com

Drug dealers are peddling a new marijuana product called Wax that looks and feels like lip balm and packs a kick equivalent to smoking 15-20 joints of weed.

Police in Roswell, Ga., discovered 80 grams of Wax during a recent drug bust. Roswell Police Officer Zachary Frommer told Fox 5 in Atlanta last week that the drug ring was selling the substance to high school students.

“It’s just an extra kick,” he said. “It gets ’em higher and it gets ’em higher faster. The 15-20 joints you smoke can equal a dose of the Wax.”

The marijuana concentrate, also known as Butter and Honeycomb, has the consistency of lip balm and is easy to conceal in lip balm jars. It can be eaten or smoked, using a bong or an electronic cigarette. It is made from the oils of marijuana plants and has a high level of THC -- the chemical that gets a user high.

Wax is also easy to make, but dangerous to handle.

“You’re getting a lot of home cooks, a lot of teenagers and others that are trying to make it at home,” Frommer told Fox 5. “And because of the things you need to use to make it, because they’re flammable and they’re combustible and you may end up blowing up your house or burning yourself.”

In April, DEA administrator Michele Leonhart told the House Appropriations Committee that abuse of Wax was increasing throughout the U.S.

"In 2013, the THC content of leaf marijuana averaged 14 percent, while the THC content of marijuana concentrates averaged 54 percent, with some samples reported as high as 99 percent," Leonhart said. "Highly flammable butane gas is used to extract the THC from the marijuana leaf, and has resulted in home explosions, injuries, and deaths."