NYC Council members say criminalization of marijuana pushes people to dangerous K2

BY Erin Durkin

 

Go Nakamura/For New York Daily News 

Melissa Mark-Viverito (r.) says the dangers posed by K2 represent "an opportunity to look at issues of marijuana policy."

Some City Council members Monday said the criminalization of marijuana is causing people to turn to the more dangerous K2 and creating a health crisis.
Users who want to avoid getting busted or testing positive for drugs sometimes turn to the chemically created “synthetic marijuana” — but the drug’s effects can be much worse than traditional pot, including seizures and agitated, violent behavior.

“Our policing of marijuana may . . . have led users to K2,” said City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, who supports legalizing recreational pot. “This is an opportunity to look at issues of marijuana policy that might be driving folks to this dangerous drug.”
Councilmen Corey Johnson (D-Manhattan), who chairs the health committee, and Rafael Espinal (D-Brooklyn) took a similar view at a hearing on K2 problem.

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“Some people smoke K2 to avoid a positive drug test for marijuana — a much safer drug. This is another reason that we should be taxing and regulating marijuana rather than criminalizing it and driving people to alternatives like K2,” Johnson said.

But Elizabeth Glaser, director of Mayor de Blasio’s criminal justice office, said the mayor disagrees.
“We still think there are adverse consequences for drug use,” she said. “Decriminalizing marijuana entirely, the sale, the possession with intent to sell, is not something that the administration supports.”

Some 2,300 people in New York State were sent to emergency rooms after suffering the effects of K2 in July and August alone, officials said.

 

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

K2 "synthetic marijuana" can cause seizures and agitated, violent behavior in users.

The Council is considering bills that would make it a misdemeanor to sell K2 in the city and allow officials to close down bodegas and stores caught peddling it as a public nuisance.
The state Health Department has issued an order banning the drug, but penalties are low and manufacturers are able to evade the ban by changing the chemical formula.