![]() ![]() In South Carolina, where she’s originally from, she said, “It’s just like weed.On Wednesday, in New Haven, Connecticut, more than 70 people overdosed on a drug suspected to be K2, renewing concerns about the problem with drugs in America. Samantha McGilton, 28, a double-amputee who uses a wheelchair, told VICE News this was very different than the K2 she’d smoked in the past, the stuff sold in pouches at bodegas or convenience stores with goofy names like “Judgement Day.” “They make new compounds to try to circumvent the law, and there’s often disastrous results,” Middleberg said. The ingredients are constantly changing in an effort to skirt drug laws, and, depending on the batch, synthetic cannabinoids can cause a spike in blood pressure, seizures, kidney damage, vomiting, and more, according to t he DEA. The synthetic drugs are often falsely marketed as a legal alternative to marijuana, but the effects are much different. The ones that were used early on, while they had some of that profile, they weren’t as bad.” “I’d call it an advanced form of K2,” said Robert Middleberg, laboratory director at NMS Labs near Philadelphia, one of the premier toxicology labs in the country. In May, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched a health advisory concerning what it called a “multi-state outbreak.” Virulent forms of K2 have been spreading across the country since the spring, with dangerous varieties reported in Chicago, New York City, and D.C. Jim Carroll, President Trump’s nominee for drug czar, or head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, is set to come to New Haven on Monday, according to New Haven Mayor Toni Harp. ![]() Agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration in New York confirmed that at least one victim had smoked a pure synthetic cannabinoid. And two men, Felix Melendez and John Parker, were arraigned in a state court Thursday on charges relating to handling and possessing the synthetic drug, according to the Hartford Courant, although it wasn't clear whether the drugs they had resulted in the overdoses in New Haven. New Haven police have reportedly arrested three people in connection with the overdoses. Read: What you need to know about tianeptine, the unapproved anti-depressant that’s poisoning some people Instead, it looked a lot more like “spice” or K2, the street names for the ultra-cheap, illegal plant substances sprayed with chemicals that contain synthetic cannabinoids. But the overdose antidote naloxone wasn’t reviving anyone. Emergency responders raced to more than 70 calls in the first 24 hours, generating headlines across the country.Īt first, responders thought that the potent synthetic opioid fentanyl might be to blame. Much of the city’s emergency services have been focused on the park since Wednesday, when one person after another began overdosing on the lawn after smoking K2. ![]() “It’s not often that you see this magnitude of responders running in so many different directions.” “This is kind of the epicenter,” said Rick Fontana, the city’s director of the office of emergency operations, standing by the ambulances idling on the green, which draws a daily mix of homeless, transients, moms pushing strollers, and students passing through. Shortly after an ambulance carted the man away and first responders began to return to their respective places in the park, another man stumbled across the lawn and passed out, spurring the same macabre routine. ![]()
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