The first time he smoked it, he said, “I thought I was going to die. “Some of the the side effects you see now are more severe than what we initially saw,” she said.Ī man on Kensington Avenue who gave his name as Mark said he began smoking K2 as a teenager because family members on probation, trying to pass a drug test, had begun using it themselves. K2 first gained wide use in Philadelphia around 2011, Herens said, and drug users started displaying some of its more serious side effects, including psychosis, around 20. The city’s health department attributes three overdose deaths since May 2018 to K2. The drug was not present in any of the city’s fatal overdoses in recent years, but last summer, a combination of heroin, fentanyl, and K2 sold in that neighborhood caused two spikes in nonfatal overdoses that sickened hundreds. In Kensington, the center of the city’s opioid crisis, K2 is also on the rise. > READ MORE: SEPTA police used pepper spray, batons in clash with homeless people at Suburban Stationįor now, Herens hands out fliers in the Suburban Station tunnels and warns K2 users that their drugs could be cut with deadly fentanyl. And it’s hard to help people who insist on using it to at least protect themselves from its worst impacts, because so little is known about it. Philadelphia - already dealing with one of the nation’s worst opioid crises - has no city-funded treatment facilities dedicated to helping people addicted to K2. K2 is a lab-made cannabinoid that acts on the same brain receptors as marijuana, but has far more unpredictable effects, which can include catatonia, psychosis, and agitation that can lead to violence. Transit officers described some people acting almost unresponsive, while others become wild, as if they had taken PCP. The big problem is addiction, she said, and K2 is exacerbating the problem. “What’s happening in Suburban Station right now is very different than what was happening three years ago," said Sister Mary Scullion, executive director of the homeless support nonprofit Project HOME. Blossoming use of K2 - a synthetic compound sprayed on plant matter and smoked - is making the situation more volatile, they say. These incidents prompted an outcry from advocates for vulnerable people who often suffer from serious mental health and addiction issues. Twice in two months, SEPTA transit police have come under scrutiny for their interactions with homeless people, including a clash in January that turned violent, in which officers sprayed people with mace and hit them with batons. Use of the drug K2, which can lead to erratic behavior and unpredictable side effects, is on the rise in Philadelphia, cropping up in neighborhoods like Kensington, the heart of the city’s opioid epidemic, and at Suburban Station, where officials say it is contributing to a tense relationship between police and people who shelter there.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |