From right, U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent introduces a forum Dec.
14, 2015, at Sacred Heart Hospital in Allentown on synthetic drugs,
featuring DEA Assistant Special Agent in Charge David Cali, Allentown
police Chief Keith Morris, Sacred Heart Patient Care Director Gina
Hausman, Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim, Sacred Heart Medical Director
of the Emergency Department Robert Tomsho Jr. and Lehigh County Chief
Deputy District Attorney Bethany Zampogna. (Kurt Bresswein | For
lehighvalleylive.com)
U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent on Monday brought together local and federal law enforcement along with medical professionals to look at what can be done to combat the draw of synthetic marijuana, often known as K2 or Spice.
There's no one solution, as lawmakers and law
enforcement play a deadly game of whack-a-mole with overseas chemists
tweaking formulas to keep their illicit revenue flowing, the
participants said. But those on the panel agreed that stemming the
dangerous trend starts with education.
We need to get out that there is no safe package to use, no safe quantity."
Synthetic marijuana involves spraying a chemical brew on vegetable matter and marketing it as potpourri, labeled "not for human consumption" to skirt existing laws on designer drugs, the panelists said. Federal law that Dent worked on and was passed in 2012 banned 26 chemicals used in synthetic drugs. Paired with new state laws, the crackdown helped drive the trade from convenience stores.
More often now, it's purchased in large quantities and repackaged for sale at lower prices than actual marijuana, Zampogna said.
"They're selling it from houses here like they are every other illegal drug," she said.
One unconscious, two taken to hospital after 'K2' use in Easton park
City
police and firefighters and the Easton Emergency Squad responded just
before 8 p.m. Wednesday to Dutchtown Park in the 600 block of Walnut
Street.
Synthetic marijuana seized in the Phillipsburg area. (lehighvalleylive.com file photo) Allentown police Chief Keith Morris told of one user kicking a paramedic unconscious, then biting police.
"People that use these drugs are in an agitated state," he said. "They're escalated and they're routinely fighting, punching, kicking and causing serious injuries to those first responders that are heading out there every day to deal with these issues."
Tomsho said he has seen some synthetic marijuana users exhibit paranoia, extreme agitation, rapid heart beat, suicidal thoughts, vomiting and hallucinations, while other users become somnolent — perhaps breathing five times a minute. The effects can vary with time on a single user.
"The staff really has to shift gears," said Gina Hausman, a nurse and the patient care director at Sacred Heart, 421 W. Chew St.
'One hit and he died'
Cali, from the DEA, relayed one horror story of a 19-year-old man who took one puff off a cigarette laced with K2 last year, fell into a coma for four days then died."First-time user, one hit and he died," Cali said.
Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim said he investigated the death of an 18-year-old who also smoked K2 once, and didn't move for 24 hours before a friend called his mother.
"He ended up in my office," Grim said. "That sums it up right there. He used it one time."
Grim said he has seen drug-related deaths rise from 60 in 2009 countywide to 88 in 2014, and 103 as of the start of December this year — with more than a dozen death investigations still awaiting toxicology testing to determine the cause.
These deaths strike people in their teens and 20s, in their 60s, who are white, Hispanic, black, married or divorced, Grim said. Some are children affected by maternal addiction.
"There's really no demographic you can predict," Sacred Heart's Tomsho said.
Coroner: Synthetic marijuana tied to fatal heart attack of man in police custody
Ohl was stricken as he was being arrested Nov. 25 in Downtown Easton."That is extremely expensive, but when do you say no, when do you tell the lab, 'Stop'?" Grim said.
"Especially when I have a mother asking me, 'Why did my child die?' ...
"That is being paid by the community, by the taxpayers of Lehigh County. Do I do that 200 times a year?" he continued, noting that he does not permit cost to degrade the integrity of a death investigation.
Pot legalization not seen as the answer
Monday night's discussion comes as Dent pushes for passage of House Resolution 3537, which would ban more than 200 known synthetic drugs and strengthen so-called analog laws that enable law enforcement to take down manufacturers, importers and distributors of emerging versions.The DEA's Cali said from 2009 through 2011, some 250 synthetic drugs came on to the market, with another 80 introduced since 2012.
"That amounts to almost a new synthetic drug every four to five days," Cali said. "It's very challenging for law enforcement to keep up with that. ... We're constantly trying to catch up and stay ahead of that."
So would legalizing actual marijuana help the fight? The panelists were unanimous in their opposition, and Dent said that's a question for medical professionals.
"Do you really want your members of Congress behaving like they're running the FDA?" he asked.
Zampogna, the prosecutor, said an increasing problem of opiate addiction often starts with oxycontin, a legal painkiller.
"That's where it exploded," she said, adding that she doesn't see how to safely regulate a controlled substance. "I think we just learned that, and if we haven't learned that then shame on us."
Millie Serpas, a West End Allentown resident, volunteered to the panel that her son used marijuana mixed with K2 in spring at age 18. His kidneys failed, his liver started to fail and he was in intensive care for a week. Now 19, he continues to face serious medical issues because of that experimentation, she said.
Serpas said states that have legalized recreational marijuana send the wrong message to people like her son.
"To them, all they see is everybody thinks it's OK," she said.
SIGNS OF SYNTHETIC MARIJUANA USE
Users of synthetic marijuana may exhibit:
paranoia
secretive behavior
abstract, unhinged thoughts
stealing
suicidal feelings.
In an overdose, users may have:
extreme agitation
rapid heart beat
hallucinations
nausea and vomiting
depressed breathing
lethargy.
Source: Sacred Heart Hospital Medical Director of the Emergency Department Robert Tomsho Jr.
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