33 people were hospitalized on Tuesday after reportedly overdosing on synthetic marijuana in Brooklyn.
A woman called 911 to report people vomiting and urinating near Broadway and Myrtle Ave, according to NBC.
The usage of the powerful drug, also known as “K2” or “Spice”, is not uncommon there. Thus, the location is dubbed “ground zero” or “K2 Heaven.”
Brian Arthur, a Brooklyn resident, who shared footage of the situation on Facebook, described the scene as a “zombieland.” “These guys were wandering around, stumbling, all over the place, and were completely out of it,” he told The Post.
In his video, men were passed out on the sidewalk and one guy was leaning onto a fire hydrant for support like a frozen statue. Most of the druggies were young men, according to Arthur.
“Some of them were motionless,” he said to the NY Daily News. “This is nothing you’d want your kids to see.”
According to Fox, one cop said it’s the worst he has ever witnessed.
Officers walked around the area in pairs, checking the vital signs of unconscious K2 users, according to the NY Times. Unresponsive individuals were loaded onto stretchers and taken to Woodhull Medical Center and Wyckoff Heights Medical Center by ambulances.
A police source told The Post it was the result of a bad batch of K2.
“Since the chemicals found in K2 vary from packet to packet, and potency can differ even within one packet, the effects of K2 are unpredictable,” the Health Department warned, BBC reported. “People who use K2 may feel fine one time, and become extremely sick the next.”
They also said some side effects include extreme anxiety, confusion, paranoia, hallucinations, rapid heart rate, vomiting, seizures, fainting, kidney failure, and reduced blood supply to the heart.
As for James Jones, 27, he experienced difficulty breathing as he felt his throat swell up, according to The Post.
It said surveillance footage shows him running up to a tourist family while flailing his arms violently. Jones, a father of three young children, allegedly knocked down a woman in a striped dress.
Witnesses said he shouted, “My f—king throat, my f—king throat is on fire! Get it out, get it out!”
Jones, said he was just trying to get help from the family but would like to apologize to them if he had the chance.
Moreover, he said he was “done” with the drugs, according to The Post.
However, it reported that several hospitalized patients were back on the same streets the next day. According to DNAInfo.com, police believe Big Boy Deli at 928 Broadway is “the sole distributor” of K2 in the area.
Residents of the neighborhood, such as, Freddie Smith, who lives in a homeless shelter are also aware of the store.
“[Since] this last week, the police are coming every day and the people are still smoking,” Freddie Smith, who lives in a homeless shelter, said. “The sad thing is the police know where they’re selling it. But they can’t raid it every day. They raid that store once a month.”
According to The Guardian, the synthetic marijuana’s popularity skyrocketed last year because of its low price and easy accessibility.
Hence, the city banned the sale of K2 in October of last year.