2015/06/15

Newsweek June 11, 2015: Synthetic Marijuana Deaths Tripled This Year

From January to May of this year, 15 people have died from using synthetic cannabinoids, a threefold increase from that period in 2014, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a report issued Thursday. The number of calls to poison centers about the substances has also skyrocketed in the past year, confirming the federal government’s view that this is a growing public health threat that needs to be stamped out.

Synthetic cannabinoids are man-made psychoactive chemicals sprayed on plant material, which is then cut and smoked or eaten. They are alternately referred to and sold as synthetic marijuana, spice, K2, black mamba or crazy clown, according to the CDC report. New types of synthetics are constantly hitting the market, available online and in head shops, making it difficult for the government to outlaw them one by one.

From January to May, poison centers in the United States reported 3,572 calls related to synthetic cannabinoid use, according to the CDC. That’s 229 percent more than the number for that period last year. The majority of calls were for men (80.7 percent), and the median user age (when age was recorded) was 26. (It ranged from 7 to 72.) The 15 deaths related to synthetics in that period compares with five over the same five months in 2014. more