Synthetic Drugs Led To An Average Of 18.7 FEMS Calls A Day In October

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Wow. Maybe this is getting out of hand.

I have no experience with this stuff, but my take is that the oft-heard term "synthetic marijuana" notwithstanding, it resembles marijuana not at all. The article makes this clear.

"FEMS" is the DC Fire and EMS Department.

Synthetic Drugs Led To An Average Of 18.7 FEMS Calls A Day In October

by Rachel Kurzius in News on Nov 20, 2015 5:15 pm

New numbers from the Office of the Attorney General show FEMS was called 580 times in October for a case involving synthetic marijuana in D.C., an average of 18.7 times a day. On one particularly bad day, calls peaked at 31.

These numbers are only a slight improvement from August and September, which both exceeded 600 calls to EMS for synthetic drugs. "It's overburdening EMS," says Robert Marus, communications director for the OAG. An NBC4 report found that in September, EMS calls due to synthetic drugs were ten times as common as those due to cardiac arrest. And authorities have tied the brightly-packaged drugs to a number of violent attacks.

New legislation introduced yesterday by the D.C. Office of the Attorney General would make it easier for police and the U.S. Attorneys Office to deal with the drugs, which are packaged as K2, Spice, Bizarro, Scooby Snax, and Trainwreck.

Called the SAFE D.C. Act, the legislation's main thrust is to simplify categorizing the drug, which is a chemical designed to resemble THC—the active ingredient in marijuana. However, the synthetic drug shares very little in common with weed.

[Chathamization]

1. More fallout from Congress blocking the regulated sale of marijuana

People are buying what they think is MJ an it's actually some garbage cooked up in a lab. They smoke it and have no idea what it's going to do to them.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Bath salts

Police: Drug Conference Attendee Stripped Naked in Crystal City After a Bad Trip

by ARLnow.com — November 23, 2015 at 2:55 pm

A man attending a conference on drug policy reform stripped naked, started yelling incoherently and was ultimately tased by police during a bad trip Saturday night in Crystal City. ... Police say they were called to the intersection of Crystal Drive and 18th Street around midnight Saturday night, for a report of a man standing in the roadway and acting erratically.

Upon arriving on scene, police saw 29-year-old Hector Segura in a flower bed, waving his arms in the air, said Arlington County Police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck. Segura was completely nude and sweating profusely despite the chilly temperatures, Sternbeck said.

According to police, Segura ran at the first responding officer and slammed his hands on the hood of his police cruiser, all while screaming incoherently. The officer used a Taser to subdue the man and called for backup to help take him in custody.

Medics responded and sedated Segura — who was under the influence of bath salts, according to a field toxicology test — to keep him from harming himself by continuing to writhe on the pavement, Sternbeck said. He was transported to Virginia Hospital Center for observation, where he continued to hallucinate and talk incoherently, according to Sternbeck.