actually here in the UK Spice first came about around 2008, a time in the UK known to those who smoked weed as the "Gritweed Epidemic" in an unscrupulous attempt to make higher profits growers were spraying weed with spray on glass frosting and other nasty substances that looked like crystals but were actually highly unpleasant often harmful substances

This became so bad that at its height it was near impossible to buy unadulterated cannabis, then suddenly a product pops up in head shops that seems to get people stoned, costs pretty much the same as weed and wasnt full of glass/silica/paint, it became an instant success

this of course led people to realise there were other such chemicals capable of getting you high in some way that were also not yet illegal with the likes of 4-methylmethcathinone aka mephedrone becoming hugely popular because it was powerful, easily available and cheap,

the HUGE danger this brought with it was that there was (arguably still is) a belief by those who dont know anything about the chemistry that as its not illegal it must be "safe" this of course was not the case at all

In the US it may have been more for that reason but its actually quite a rare occurence that people are drug tested in the workplace here unless you work a mission critical job like say an air traffic controller, i have never been personally subjected to a drugs test in 2 decades of employment

I was a freshman in college right when spice/JWH was first catching on, and from first hand experience I know at least 5 people who used it semi regularly even though they weren't expecting a drug test. The fact that you could get it cheaply from the headshop accross the street and carry it with you risk free was the main selling point then. Also it didn't smell like weed and you could keep it in the dorm without stinking the place up. Eventually we started learning about the crazy health risks and the law started catching up with banning the most common JWH formulations, and it wasn't worth the risk. Fortunately most folks in my friend group were able to move off campus and make safe connections with weed dealers and either do that, or sober up completely. But it definitely had appeals to people who could not easily get marijuana or didn't like the sketchness of getting it in a prohibition state.

seems the situation was different in the US but much is, you guys had an analogs law long before us and also some states with legal cannabis.

thankfully for the tech savvy not too many years later came the advent of the dark web markets such as silk road which gave people access to clean weed fairly easily. say what you will but i believe the dark net markets are actually a force for good, although there isnt the "community spirit" which existed in the original silk road, there were many good people on there

now im sure there are those reading this thinking "good people?? these are drug dealers! theyre scum!" but that isnt the case, especially in those days, people cared about providing clean quality substances to people who wanted them, no one was "pushing" anything and almost everything was of the finest quality. again its an issue of the image the media has created. its a shame im so terribly poor at writing in general or i could write a fairly interesting book or article about this sort of stuff

Yeah, I just read your comment about people in the UK adulterating marijuana with random junk and it just blows my mind that anyone could do that. I definitely see how that would drive people towards synthetics.

I know what you mean about community though. Where I'm from most of the dealers are the stereotypical goofy hippies who seem to worship cannabis and see it as a cure for anything. It's a little obnoxious to listen to them rant sometimes, but at least I know they genuinely aren't going to poison anybody for a few bucks, they just really like weed.