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Tag: bad batch

  • More Than 70 People Overdose In Connecticut Park Over 24-Hour Period

    More Than 70 People Overdose In Connecticut Park Over 24-Hour Period

    K2 is to blame for the mass overdose in New Haven.

    Starting on Tuesday night, more than 70 people suffered a drug overdose in a 24-hour period in New Haven, Connecticut—most of them a stone’s throw from Yale University.

    According to CBS News, the Drug Enforcement Administration has confirmed that the cause of the mass overdose was, indeed, K2—the synthetic drug that’s been the suspect behind similar mass drug poisonings from Washington, D.C. to Skid Row.

    Initially, officials speculated that the mystery substance was “possibly laced with an opioid” such as fentanyl, the New York Times reported. But the DEA confirmed that no additives were detected.

    Most of the poisonings happened on New Haven Green, a park not far from Yale University. At least two people experienced “life-threatening symptoms,” but no deaths were reported. Three people were arrested in relation to the mass overdose.

    At the scene, the victims suffered “a multitude of signs and symptoms ranging from vomiting, hallucinating, high blood pressure, shallow breathing, [and] semi-conscious and unconscious states,” said Rick Fontana, New Haven’s director of emergency operations.

    Emergency personnel scrambled to reach all of the victims. They were “sprinting from patient to patient in the park,” with crews transporting people quickly “just to turn the cars around and get them back out,” according to Dr. Sandy Bogucki, the city’s director of emergency medical services.

    On July 4, there were 14 drug overdoses in the same area of New Haven, with K2 as the reported cause.

    Also in July, NBC News reported that more than 260 people were sickened by “synthetic drugs” in Washington, D.C. in a span of 10 days. Once again, K2 was the suspected cause.

    This marked a significant increase from the previous July, when just 107 were hospitalized for drug poisonings in Washington, D.C.

    K2 is also known as Spice and “synthetic marijuana.” However, as High Times notes, comparing the drug to cannabis is “being generous.”

    The only similarity that K2 may have to cannabis, however faint, is its physical appearance. But the effects couldn’t be more different.

    “In reality, the drug is a manmade chemical cocktail of various psychoactive substances,” High Times explains. “The chemical mixture is then sprayed onto dried herbs or plant material, giving the drug an appearance similar to botanical cannabis.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • FDA Warns Of Synthetic Marijuana Laced With Rat Poison

    FDA Warns Of Synthetic Marijuana Laced With Rat Poison

    The warning comes amid a wave of synthetic marijuana overdoses. 

    The FDA warned this week about the ongoing danger of synthetic cannabis laced with rat poison, floating concerns that the tainted drug could pose a threat to the nation’s blood supply. 

    Poisoned supplies of the drug have already accounted for several deaths and sent hundreds of users to the hospital this year with severe bleeding or seizures, officials said. 

    Concern about contaminated drug stashes comes amid an ongoing effort to stamp out the use of the cannabis copycat often sold illegally in convenient stores and corner markets. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention raised a red flag about the risks of rat poison-laced supplies earlier this year. 

    “Despite our efforts, certain entities continue to bypass state and federal drug laws by making and distributing these products – often marked or labeled as ‘not for human consumption’ – and changing the structure of the synthetic chemicals to try to skirt legal requirements,” the FDA wrote in its release. 

    But the real danger in recent months, the agency said, is that K2 makers have begun adding in brodifacoum – an anticoagulant used in rat poison – in an effort to prolong the high. 

    Adding that chemical can pose other health risks, including severe bleeding. Hundreds of users across 10 Midwestern states have been hospitalized in recent months as a result of complications stemming from the presence of brodifacoum, the agency said. 

    “Today, we’re joining together to send a strong warning to anyone who may use synthetic marijuana products that these products can be especially dangerous as a result of the seemingly deliberate use of brodifacoum in these illegal products,” the agency wrote in a release Thursday. 

    Aside from the risk to users, the agency also highlighted the threat to the blood supply. 

    “The FDA has received several reports of donors who used synthetic cannabinoids contaminated with brodifacoum. Because of its long half-life, the bleeding risk from brodifacoum, which prevents vitamin K from being reused within the body, can persist for weeks,” the agency wrote.

    “Given the known and unknown risks associated with these synthetic cannabinoid products, the FDA urges individuals to avoid using them, especially since there’s no way of telling which synthetic marijuana products have been contaminated with the powerful anticoagulant brodifacoum.” 

    The agency vowed to continue monitoring the situation, along with the CDC and DEA.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • "Bad Batch" Of K2 Suspected In DC Mass Overdose

    "Bad Batch" Of K2 Suspected In DC Mass Overdose

    Since last week, 140 people were sickened and four have died in the suspected overdose wave.

    A “bad batch” of K2, a nickname for “synthetic marijuana,” is the prime suspect behind a recent rash of apparent overdoses in Washington, D.C.

    Fox 5 reported on Wednesday that 140 people were sickened and four have died since Saturday. “Since July 14th we’ve had over 100 people that we’ve transported,” said D.C. Fire & EMS Chief Gregory Dean.

    While the suspected overdoses occurred in “pockets throughout the District,” emergency officials observed that many of them occurred near one homeless shelter not far from D.C. police headquarters.

    “You will see people that are unconscious, people that are vomiting, people that are collapsing or maybe being overly aggressive—those are signs that they may be impacted or under the influence,” said Dean.

    According to NBC News, the number of emergency calls for suspected overdoses has fluctuated in recent years. In July of 2016, the D.C. fire department responded to 597 overdose patients to the hospital, while in July of 2017, that number decreased to 105.

    Authorities handed out “Emergency Alert” flyers in hard-hit areas containing information about K2, how to stay safe, and resources for substance use disorder treatment and behavioral health services.

    While authorities have tried keeping up with the use of K2, reports of mass overdoses haven’t gone away.

    Last month, the Daily Beast reported a “remarkable increase in the use of synthetic cannabinoids among IV drug users.” There are now at least 700 possible variations of synthetic cannabinoids, according to the report.

    “We are now in our eighth generation of synthetic cannabinoids and they just keep getting more powerful and unpredictable,” said forensic narcotics expert David Leff. “Users you have no idea what you’re actually consuming. These are substances that have never been tested on humans.”

    Also, over the last year, we’ve come across reports of K2 laced with bug spray, and K2 that cause more disturbing side effects like severe bleeding.

    In April 2018, 56 such cases were reported in the Chicago-central Illinois area.

    “All cases have required hospitalizations for symptoms such as coughing up blood, blood in the urine, severe bloody nose, and/or bleeding gums,” reported the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) at the time.

    View the original article at thefix.com