Drugs

More than two dozen people have fallen ill in an apparent mass drug overdose on a New York City street corner, sparking warnings from police and health officials about the dangers of using K2, also known as synthetic marijuana.

Calls started coming in on Tuesday morning that numerous people appeared to be overdosing in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighbourhood of Brooklyn. Witnesses reported seeing victims lying on the sidewalk, shaking and leaning against trees and fire hydrants.

Thirty-three 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.

[...]

The health department issued a statement on Tuesday saying it had “recorded a spike in K2-related emergency room visits” connected to the incident in Brooklyn.

  Guardian

Synthetic marijuana? WTF?

Though 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.

That's not synthetic marijuana - unless the dry leaves are some other plant.

K2 can cause extreme anxiety, confusion, paranoia, hallucinations, rapid heart rate, vomiting, fainting, kidney failure and reduced blood supply to the heart.

So, "mass drug overdose" is not quite accurate, is it?  Mass drug use, perhaps.

Stick to marijuana, people.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.