People are getting poisoned from smoking dried plant matter sprayed with synthetic psychoactive chemicals, packaged as a legal alternative to marijuana, reports the LA Times.
The researchers analyzed the numbers from the National Poison Data System, which tracks the monthly calls to all U.S. poison centers. The number of calls in April had shot up to 1,501– a whopping 330% over the 349 calls made in January.
Between January and May 2015, poison centers received 3,572 calls linked to synthetic cannabinoid use – a 229% jump over the 1,085 calls received during the same period in 2014.
A total of 626 calls reported that the synthetic cannabinoids had been used with multiple substances; the top two were alcohol (144) and plant-based marijuana (103).
In 2014 Dr. Andrew A. Monte of the University of Colorado School of Medicine wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine, “Although the effects of exposures to first-generation synthetic cannabinoids are largely benign, newer products have been associated with seizures, ischemic stroke and cardiac toxicity, possibly due to potency. These substances are not benign. You can buy designer drugs of abuse at convenience stores and on the Internet. People may not realize how dangerous these drugs can be — up to 1,000 times stronger binding to cannabis receptors when compared to traditional marijuana.”
Image: Representative Sample of Synthetic Cannabinoid Recovered from an Intoxicated Patient. New England Journal of Medicine