A shocking incident has caused about 33 persons to collapse at the same time after overdosing on marijuana.
Many people collapsed at the same time after overdosing on synthetic marijuana
According to
Metro, more than 30 people had to be taken to hospital in New York after a mass-overdose of synthetic marijuana, police have said.
It was gathered that the victims collapsed and were barely able to walk in the same neighbourhood of Brooklyn after smoking K2. Some of them were seen lying on the pavement, shaking and leaning against trees and fire hydrants.
In total 33 people were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said. It was not immediately clear what drugs the victims had ingested, but police said some of the victims had been smoking K2, also known as synthetic marijuana.
Dennis Gonzalez, of Bushwick, told WNBC-TV that K2 use in that part of Brooklyn was out of control.
‘It’s gotten out of hand,’ he said. ‘They even sleep in the street, we have to walk around them. It’s just too much to keep under control.’
The Health Department said it ‘recorded a spike in K2-related emergency room visits’ connected to the incident in Brooklyn. The department said it was investigating and monitoring casualty departments across the city.
‘We remind New Yorkers that K2 is extremely dangerous,’ the Health Department said.
‘The city’s public awareness efforts and aggressive enforcement actions over the past year have contributed to a significant decline in ER visits related to K2.’
Although K2 affects the same area of the brain as marijuana, it contains chemicals made in laboratories and sprayed on to dry leaves.
These chemicals are not derived from the marijuana plant, according to the Health Department.
K2 can cause extreme anxiety, confusion, paranoia, hallucinations, rapid heart rate, vomiting, fainting, kidney failure and reduced blood supply to the heart.