(CNN)Twenty-five people have been hospitalized in the same area of Brooklyn after having negative reactions from what’s believed to be synthetic marijuana known as K2, according to Lt. Paul Ng with the New York Police Department.
There have been no fatalities, Ng said Saturday night. According to police, the hospitalizations began Saturday evening and continued over the course of several hours.
Among those hospitalized, 15 people were treated at NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull in Brooklyn. As of Sunday morning, about half of them had been released and the others were in the emergency room “under observation,” hospital spokeswoman Ana Marengo said.
Police are investigating drug activity in the area of Brooklyn where the illnesses were centered, and attempting to locate any more victims and also drug dealers, Ng said.
He said while police cannot say for certain that the synthetic drug caused the illnesses, that is what investigators suspected.
Other synthetic marijuana incidents
This incident in New York comes about a month after synthetic marijuana was linked to 153 people falling ill and the deaths of four people across Chicago and areas in central Illinois. The synthetic cannabinoids were found to contain rat poison and most of the hospitalizations were related to unexplained bleeding, such as coughing up blood, blood in the urine, bloody nose and bleeding gums.
Last year, 102 people in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, overdosed on synthetic marijuana within three days. None of those cases was fatal.
There was also a 2016 incident in Brooklyn where 33 people were hospitalized after overdosing on synthetic marijuana over an 11-hour period. Patients suffered respiratory problems and possible altered mental states, a fire department spokesman said at the time.
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Credit: edition.cnn.com
Credit: edition.cnn.com
