Dozens Hospitalized in NYC After Using Synthetic Marijuana

[DonViejo]

Source: The Daily Beast



At least 25 people were hospitalized late Saturday after suffering negative reactions from K2, or synthetic marijuana, ABC 7 NY reports. Police learned of the apparent overdoses after responding to calls for assistance at the intersection of Broadway and Myrtle in Bedford-Stuyvesant, the same corner where 33 people overdosed on the drug in 2016. The victims have all been hospitalized but are expected to survive. Police are reportedly searching for a woman believed to have distributed the K2 and officers also reportedly inspected businesses near that intersection. A witness cited by ABC 7 said the area was often filled with people “passed out all over the place” after taking the drug.

READ IT AT ABC 7 NY

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Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/dozens-hospitalized-in-nyc-after-using-synthetic-marijuana?ref=home

[Dennis Donovan]

1. Legalize the real stuff and this will happen less...

[elcaja]

2. K2 is NOT synthetic marijuana!

This substance has no THC and is not promoted as synthetic marijuana. I wish media would not call it that...they're only continuing the stigma the gov't. put on cannabis with a campaign of total lies in the 1930s and still continues today, among all the other lies they feed us.

[backtoblue]

8. +1 and welcome to DU!

[eppur_se_muova]

3. ***FAKE*** POT, NOT synthetic pot !!!!!

A pox on the fools who got the "synthetic" label established. This is not a synthetic version of a natural product, or a modified natural product. It is (one or more) totally synthetic "analogues" which bind to the same receptors (more or less) as THC but in significantly different fashion. The perceived effects are somewhat similar to MJ but the differences are more significant than the similarities.

The active ingredients are *NOT* those found in natural MJ, and some of them are much more pharmacologically active. These compounds have found a market in an effort to circumvent anti-MJ laws, but they appear to be immensely more dangerous than MJ itself. It would be much safer to legalize MJ than to try to block the market in cannabis imitators. Cannabis imitators have sent a number of people to emergency rooms and one is clearly implicated in at least one death. Given the short period of time these drugs have been available, and the smaller number of users compared to MJ, they are clearly the sort of public danger that opponents of MJ always wanted MJ to be.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=38305



ETA: There may have been more fatalities since this was originally posted in 2012; certainly there have been more people sickened.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. Criminalizing drugs leads to unregulated production. Unregulated guns leads to criminal gun deaths.

Cannabis is non-addicting and illegal and basically harmless.

Guns are addicting and legal and LETHAL. There are more guns than people in the USA, which means that average adult owns about 2 guns and the average family owns over 3. Since most adults and families do not own guns that means many own many guns.

Over 50% of the guns are owned by 3% (three percent) of the population. That means over 150 million guns are owned by 9 million people, an average of 17 guns each.

That's gun addiction.

[getagrip_already]

5. it's still an open question whether cannibis is addictive....

But even if it is, it's not a damaging addiction. You can get addicted to all kinds of things; nicotine , sugar, coffee, chocolate, sex, tv, etc.

Not all addictions are harmful in quite the same way guns or opiates or alcohol are.

I've known people who smoked every day for decades who quit cold turkey for one reason or another. They missed it, but they didn't have withdrawal symptoms. Giving up tobacco was harder for one.

If it's addicting, it's not a physical addiction.

I grow the stuff, but rarely smoke it myself. It's legal where I am. I have a lot on hand. I don't crave it. If it were truly addicting I would be burning through it.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. Cannabis less addicting than all things you list & you are correct: def not a physical addiction. nt

[LisaL]

7. Not a "physical addiction" but try and get the pothead to stop.

[getagrip_already]

10. Well, try to get a teenager

to stop masturbating. Just because someone won't give something up, it doesn't mean there is anything wrong with it.

Pot-head? Really?

Would you call someone who needs insulin a drug fiend? Cannabis is medicine. It has other uses, but that is what it is.

[Rollo]

9. From my personal experience, there is a physical component...

... to marijuana use. Hence there is a physical component to its addiction. I agree it's primarily psychological, but there is definitely a physical dependence. The mind, nervous system, and body are so closely affected, after all. It took me about a year of abstinence to get over the cravings, some 35 years ago.

THC, being fat-soluble, can linger in the body for days, weeks, and months. It is not the completely benign substance its users seem to think it is.

Despite all that, I'm in favor of decriminalizing and legalizing pot so its effects can be more openly studied and discussed.

[getagrip_already]

11. Cannabinoids, which include thc, occur naturally in the body and we are specifically designed fo....

There is a scientific description for it:

The endocannabinoid system (ECS) is a biological system composed of endocannabinoids, which are endogenous lipid-based retrograde neurotransmitters that bind to cannabinoid receptors, and cannabinoid receptor proteins that are expressed throughout the mammalian central nervous system (including the brain) and ...

So, yes, it's stored in fat cells because it is hydrophobic. But canabinoids by themselves aren't dangerous. They have a very important function.

That said, everyone has a different tolerance to addictions. Some people are affected much more than other when separated from the dependency.

[samnsara]

12. legalize it! Hell here in Wash state i can get an oz of REAL for 58$....

....at the corner store!

[EarthFirst]

13. Hell. In NYS under the Compassionate Care Act; access to cannabis is at extortion levels...

A $30 or $40 cartridge in Colorado or Orgegon will cost you $100 through the program. With NO insurance coverage.