Derek Williams was working as a trash-truck driver when his cousin told him about K2, a product made from plant materials and chemicals that provided a legal, marijuana-like high. Williams saw his ticket out of the residential rubbish business: Make a better blend.

He studied compounds that mimic the effects of pot, and almost a year after creating his own brand, Syn Incense, in his home in Kansas City, Mo., Williams, 29, says he has sold more than $1.5 million worth in at least 10 states. Marketing the product as incense helps him avoid federal regulations, even though he said he knows most customers smoke it.

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Derek Williams, seen with his girlfriend and business partner, Ashli Adkins, says he has sold more than $1.5 million worth of so-called “fake pot” in at least 10 states. Photo by Derek Williams

His ability to stay a step ahead of federal and state authorities underscores the hurdles regulators face as they move to ban chemicals used in such products, which they say may pose serious and unknown dangers. Williams said when his ingredients are restricted, he switches to similar ones.

“It became a money-making machine,” said Williams, adding that he hopes the business will lead to early retirement.

Demand for designer drugs, including what regulators call “fake pot,” is growing so fast that a United Nations narcotics-control board said Wednesday that the products are spreading “out of control” and urged governments to prevent the manufacture and trafficking of the substances.

Use of fake pot has spurred more than 3,500 calls to poison control centers throughout the country since the start of 2010, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers in Alexandria, Va. Users have suffered from racing heartbeats, high blood pressure and nausea.

The Drug Enforcement Administration on Tuesday temporarily banned five synthetic chemicals called cannabinoids, and lawmakers in Washington are considering a permanent prohibition. Twenty states have banned certain synthetic cannabinoids, according to Alison Lawrence, a policy specialist with the National Conference of State Legislatures in Denver.

Still, law enforcement is struggling to keep up. There are no field tests police can use to determine if products contain banned ingredients, and police laboratories must analyze each one separately. Dozens of competing brands have been sold in stores and online with names like Spice, Mr. Smiley, Voodoo Magic and K2 Solid Sex.

Williams, the company manager, sells his products wholesale to smoke shops, gas stations and convenience stores at prices ranging from $3.25 to $25. He says the stores typically charge at least double that in blends with names like Chill, Ripped and Lemon Lime. Some websites sell them for even more.

Products containing cannabinoids can act in a way similar to THC, the main active chemical in marijuana. They can be far more potent or less potent than THC.

Users are risking their health by consuming chemicals that never have been studied in humans, said Aron Lichtman, a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.

Several teenagers have died after smoking synthetic cannabinoids, police say. Among them was David Rozga, 18, of Iowa, who committed suicide last year after consuming the substance, according to Indianola, Iowa, police.

Charlie Davel, 19, was killed last year after he fled police and went the wrong way on a highway in Mukwonago, Wis.; friends told authorities he smoked K2 several hours before the crash.

While synthetic cannabinoids are increasingly catching the attention of authorities now, the substances have been around for decades and have been studied to treat pain, inflammation and other ailments.

Pfizer synthesized a cannabinoid that was never tested in humans as part of a program in the late 1970s to separate the psychotropic effects from pain-killing properties of cannabis, said Lauren Starr, a spokeswoman for the New York-based pharmaceutical company.

One drug containing a synthetic cannabinoid that’s approved in the United States for use in prescription medications: Marinol, marketed by Abbott Laboratories of Abbott Park, Ill., for uses including treating nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy.

Banning the substances can be difficult because as soon as one set of chemicals is restricted, producers shift to other varieties, said William Marbaker, director of the crime laboratory division of the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

Williams said he is examining new chemicals he can use as states consider banning all cannabinoids. He said Syn is especially strong and he wants to keep it that way.

“We have one of the most potent blends on the market,” he said. “That’s what people want.”

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