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Spencer Platt/Getty Images(BROOKLYN, New York) — More than two dozen people at the same street corner had to be rushed to the hospital after suffering a bad reaction to synthetic marijuana in Brooklyn on Saturday night.
Police sources told New York ABC station WABC-TV that officers reported to a street corner in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn after receiving multiple calls for bad reactions to the drug. The sources said at least 25 people were taken to the hospital to be treated for adverse symptoms.
Officials told WABC-TV that none of the patients are in life-threatening condition.
The drug, often labeled synthetic marijuana, doesn’t include any actual cannabis.
Synthetic weed, also called K2 or spice, is dried plant material sprayed with chemicals, which can be smoked or sold in liquid-form to be inhaled with a vaporizer. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, effects can be “unpredictable and, in some cases, more dangerous or even life-threatening.”
The overdoses on Saturday occurred at the intersection of Broadway and Myrtle Avenue under the J and Z subway tracks. The location is well-known by authorities.
In July 2016, at least 33 people had serious adverse reactions to synthetic weed in one day at the exact same corner, and more than 100 were taken to the emergency room from July 11-13, 2016, according to the National Institute of Health.
The National Institutes of Health released warnings in four states — Wisconsin, Indiana, Maryland and Illinois — over dangerous synthetic marijuana in early April. Illinois especially was hit with a number of problems due to the drug; three people died and more than 100 people were hospitalized in April, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.
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