Wichita ERs see spike in patients who have taken synthetic marijuana

Since Sunday, 15 patients have received emergency treatment at Wesley Medical Center after smoking synthetic marijuana, also called K2.

“I’ve been here for seven years and I’ve never seen this many cases for K2 or any drug at once,” said Ashley Lunkenheimer, emergency department manager for Wesley.

Via Christi also said it has treated recent cases of synthetic marijuana use but could not provide a number.

Synthetic marijuana originated in the early 2000s. It’s made of various psychoactive chemicals that are sprayed onto ground-up material, such as potpourri.

The 15 patients ranged from 17 to 22 years old, Lunkenheimer said, adding that they’ve seen patients as young as 13 in the past.

“Their friends are scared to get caught, so they will either drop them off at the door or police will find them wandering in the street,” she said.

K2 patients, she said, are often combative and need to be restrained or injected with sedatives. She also said many patients can’t remember taking the drugs and sometimes can’t even remember their own names.

‘It doesn’t act like marijuana at all’

It’s hard to know if the increase in emergency room visits stems from increased use of the drug in Wichita or from a particularly dangerous batch. Lunkenheimer said she suspects it’s the latter.

Synthetic marijuana is typically sold as herbal products on the Internet under a variety of names, including synthetic marijuana, spice, K2, black mamba and crazy clown. Because the chemicals used to make it vary greatly, users never know what they are getting.

“It’s never the same drug twice,” said Amy Seery, a pediatrics doctor at Via Christi. “If you tried it once, it’s not the same drug as if you try it again later.”

Seery said the last increase at local hospitals for K2 happened during winter break.

“When kids get bored, they do stupid things, so keeping a child active is definitely helpful,” she said.

What distinguishes synthetic marijuana is its high potency, said Tim Rohrig, director and chief toxicologist with the Sedgwick County Regional Forensic Science Center. The potency can lead to seizures and other serious conditions that can put people in dangerous situations, like car crashes or drowning, Rohrig said.

His understanding is that the synthetic marijuana on Wichita streets comes in powder form from China. It is dissolved in a solvent and sprayed onto vegetation, including tobacco and herbs, and left to dry. It gets rolled up and stuffed into pipes for smoking.

The drug is illegal, although some new forms of it have yet to be criminalized, he said. The law allows for criminal charges if the drug is chemically similar to illegal versions and if its effects are similar.

Seery of Via Christi emphasized the importance of telling kids that synthetic marijuana doesn’t contain marijuana and is nothing like marijuana.

“You can’t compare this to marijuana,” she said.

Laura Haws, pediatric intensivist at Wesley, also highlighted the stark difference.

“A lot of kids feel that it’s safer because people say ‘it’s a different kind of marijuana,’ and ‘it’ll be fine and safe, no worries,’” she said. “When in fact, it doesn’t act like marijuana at all.”

National trend

Kansas is part of a larger K2 outbreak around the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it received notification on April 6 that monthly phone calls to poison centers about synthetic-marijuana use jumped from 349 in January to 1,501 in April.

That same study found the center received more calls about men using the drug and that men were more likely to have severe outcomes.

Side effects from the drug vary, but can include seizures, problems breathing, rapid heart rate, vomiting, agitation, confusion, hallucinations and high blood pressure. In rare cases, they can include kidney failure and heart attacks.

Seery, from Via Christi, said that last winter a child passed away from suspicious organ failure that she said could have been caused by K2.

Contributing: Tim Potter of The Eagle

This story was originally published July 1, 2015 at 6:27 PM with the headline "Wichita ERs see spike in patients who have taken synthetic marijuana."