Bill aims to ban synthetic drugs after mass K2 overdose in N.Y.
ALBANY, N.Y. — Sen. Charles Schumer is pushing legislation to add 22 substances to the federal list of banned drugs following a mass overdose in Brooklyn last week that sent 33 people to hospitals.
Five bodegas in Brooklyn were raided Wednesday by police following Tuesday’s mass overdose blamed on the drugs sold as K2.
Witnesses reported seeing victims lying on the sidewalk, shaking and leaning against trees and fire hydrants in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood.
Brian Arthur live-streamed it on Facebook.
“As I was walking up a block, I see anybody laying out on the floor, and everybody’s just stumbling all over the place,” Arthur told CBS News. “It looked like a scene out of a zombie movie.”
More than 30 hospitalized after using synthetic marijuana
Dozens of people with blank stares were seen stumbling around a Brooklyn neighborhood on Tuesday. It was a bizarre reaction to an illegal synthet…
Designed to mimic marijuana, the man-made drug has far more powerful effects.
“What K2 does is puts you in a world, a delusional world, have your mind spinning,” said Andrew, who said he’s used synthetic marijuana. “It’s mind altering.”
CBS News’ Michelle Miller reported that K2 is made by spraying various legal chemicals onto plants. It’s then ground up and smoked. Many users experience confusion, hallucinations, rapid heart rate and even seizures.
Schumer’s bill would ban substances, including three derivatives of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, and 19 others that are used in efforts to mimic the main psychoactive ingredient of marijuana.
He says that since 2015, more than 6,000 synthetic drug-related emergency department visits in New York City and two confirmed deaths have been blamed on K2.