NYC 'Zombie' Outbreak Shows Dangers of Synthetic Drug

NYC 'Zombie' Outbreak Reveals Risks of Artificial Drug

As much as 85 occasions stronger than actual marijuana, examine says

WebMD Information from HealthDay

By Alan Mozes

HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 14, 2016 (HealthDay Information) -- The drug misleadingly marketed as "pretend pot" that triggered a "zombie" outbreak in a New York Metropolis neighborhood final summer time was considerably stronger than actual marijuana, investigators say.

Thirty-three individuals at a Brooklyn occasion grew to become intoxicated and primarily immobilized after smoking the artificial drug. Eighteen have been taken to hospitals for emergency therapy.

Testing of their urine and blood revealed proof of an artificial product referred to as AK-47 24 Karat Gold. A lab evaluation discovered it was as a lot as 85 occasions stronger than THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the principle energetic ingredient in actual marijuana, the researchers reported.

Faux pot is extremely potent, unregulated and bears no actual relationship to plant-based marijuana, mentioned Roy Gerona, creator of the brand new examine.

"What we're speaking about are hundreds of various artificial medicine, that since 2008 have been put collectively for his or her psychoactive results in clandestine labs throughout China," Gerona defined.

"Initially, some have been investigated by scientists for his or her potential pain-relieving results, however then deserted, both as a result of they did not work or they weren't secure," he added.

Gerona runs the College of California, San Francisco's Scientific Toxicology and Environmental Biomonitoring Laboratory.

"Some have chemical compounds which might be scheduled [as illegal]. Some don't. However both approach, they in no structural or medicinal approach include the properties of what's present in marijuana," he mentioned.

"You principally do not know what you take," Gerona added.

In response to the U.S. Nationwide Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), whereas artificial cannabinoids are "associated" to chemical compounds present in naturally grown marijuana vegetation, they're completely lab creations. They're usually sprayed onto vegetation for smoking or marketed as liquids to be vaporized and inhaled.

These road merchandise are offered below an array of names, together with K2, Spice, AK-47 24 Karat Gold and Mind Freeze, amongst others, mentioned Gerona.

The NIDA warns that they aren't secure.

That time was seconded by Paul Armentano, deputy director of the marijuana legalization advocacy group NORML. Armentano careworn that these medicine "bear no similarity to the botanical plant."