3 Arrested For Fentanyl-Laced Synthetic Marijuana

From WABC New Haven, Connecticut: Three people have been arrested after a rash of overdoses blamed on a suspected bad batch of synthetic marijuana sickened nearly 100 people in New Haven, Connecticut.

New Haven Police Chief Anthony Campbell told WTNH that an additional 19 people overdosed in the city on Thursday, bringing the total to 95 overdoses in the past two days.

The victims started falling ill Wednesday morning, mostly on the New Haven Green near Yale University.

“Do not come down to the Green and purchase this K2,” Campbell said. “It is taking people out very quickly, people having respiratory failure. Don’t put your life in harm.”

No deaths have been reported, and officials said most patients have been discharged.

“We literally had people running around the Green providing treatment,” said Rick Fontana, the city’s emergency operations director.

Yale-New Haven Hospital Dr. Kathryn Hawk said some patients tested positive for the powerful opioid fentanyl, but it appears most of the overdoses were caused by a potent batch of straight “K2” synthetic marijuana.

Toxicology tests are not yet complete. Police have not released the names of the suspects.

Some of the New Haven victims tested positive for the powerful opioid fentanyl, also blamed for overdoses, but authorities believe this week’s overdoses were caused solely by synthetic marijuana.

“New Haven is a place where we really are trying to help people,” Campbell said. “Someone … with malice in their heart took advantage of that, took advantage of this vulnerable population. But that will not stop this city from reaching its hand out to those who are in need and treating them and providing those services.”

New Haven first responders were called to a similar overdose outbreak on the Green on July 4, when more than a dozen people were sick from synthetic marijuana. The city also saw more than a dozen synthetic marijuana overdoses in late January. No deaths were reported in either outbreak.

Synthetic marijuana, which generally is plant material sprayed with chemicals that mimic the high from real marijuana, has been blamed for overdoses across the country.

In May, more than 50 people in Brooklyn overdosed on K2, none fatally.

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