New York State is taking steps to address the illegal sale of "K2” and other synthetic drugs after a surge of overdoses in New York City. But those drugs are also causing problems in Upstate New York.
The enforcement comes after a mass overdose in Brooklyn last week that sent 33 people to the hospital. While we haven't had the same sort of crisis in the Rochester area, synthetic drugs are an ongoing problem according to Dr. Timothy Wiegand.
He is director of toxicology at UR Medicine. Wiegand says synthetic drug use has also been a problem upstate.
He says previously, smoke shops and convenience stores were places where people could buy the drugs, but with a crackdown in recent months, the availability of those drugs has now switched to street-level dealers.
“Outbreaks are typically the homeless, destitute, really severe addictions and they reason they’re using it is because it’s still available although it’s not direct to consumer marketing, it’s people knowing where to get drugs on the street, and cheap.”
Wiegand says there have been some declines in synthetic drugs locally.
“Where we’re seeing some decreases in the synthetic cannabinoid use, I can tell you we’ve increased in other synthetic drug use; in particular, the synthetic opioids, the fentanyl knockoffs , the other designer opioids that are making their way into the heroin supply,” Wiegand told WXXI News.
Wiegand says the synthetic drugs can cause a variety of health problems, generally affecting the nervous system, and he says one main problem is that the user often doesn’t know what kind of chemicals are in the drugs, and really doesn’t know what to expect.
