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Horror: Almost 100 People Overdose in Connecticut Park Near Yale

Horror: Almost 100 People Overdose in Connecticut Park Near Yale

“Symptoms varied. Many victims lost consciousness, officials said.”

https://youtu.be/yllue_R-wEI

A nightmarish scene unfolded at New Haven Green this week, a park located near Yale University. Throughout the course of the day on Thursday, emergency officials responded to dozens of cases of drug overdoses. A synthetic form of marijuana is believed to be the cause. The actual number of people afflicted has varied among sources.

Here’s an Associated Press report, via FOX News:

Overdose total hits 76 in Connecticut park near Yale

The number of overdose victims linked to a suspected bad batch of synthetic marijuana has risen to 76 in New Haven, Connecticut, as officials try to determine exactly what sickened people.

People on and around the historic New Haven Green near Yale University began falling ill shortly after 8 a.m. Wednesday, and the overdoses continued into Thursday morning. No deaths were reported, and most people brought to hospitals have been discharged, officials said.

Symptoms varied. Many victims lost consciousness, officials said. Others vomited. Some just became nauseous or lethargic.

Toxicology testing remained incomplete Thursday. Some victims tested positive for the powerful opioid fentanyl, but it appeared most if not all the overdoses were caused only by a potent batch of “K2” synthetic marijuana, said Dr. Kathryn Hawk, an emergency medicine physician and professor at Yale-New Haven Hospital, where many of the victims were treated.

Hawk said the people who tested positive may have taken other drugs laced with fentanyl in addition to the synthetic marijuana, which is plant material sprayed with drugs and chemicals.

Here’s a video report from NBC News:

Three people have been arrested in connection to the synthetic marijuana, according to a report from WABC in New York which also ups the number of the afflicted to 95:

3 arrests after 95 overdose on synthetic marijuana at Connecticut park

Three people have been arrested after a rash of overdoses blamed on a suspected bad batch of synthetic marijuana sickened nearly 100 people in New Haven, Connecticut.

New Haven Police Chief Anthony Campbell told WTNH that an additional 19 people overdosed in the city on Thursday, bringing the total to 95 overdoses in the past two days.

The victims started falling ill Wednesday morning, mostly on the New Haven Green near Yale University.

“Do not come down to the Green and purchase this K2,” Campbell said. “It is taking people out very quickly, people having respiratory failure. Don’t put your life in harm.”

No deaths have been reported, and officials said most patients have been discharged.

“We literally had people running around the Green providing treatment,” said Rick Fontana, the city’s emergency operations director.

Yale-New Haven Hospital Dr. Kathryn Hawk said some patients tested positive for the powerful opioid fentanyl, but it appears most of the overdoses were caused by a potent batch of straight “K2” synthetic marijuana.

Talk to your family members, particularly children, and make sure they know they must avoid substances like these. Synthetic drugs like K2 are extremely dangerous.

Featured image via YouTube.

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Comments

Many entrants for this years Darwin awards.

    Tom Servo in reply to gbear. | August 17, 2018 at 12:00 pm

    this must obviously have been some form of racist attack, since a look through every available photo shows that only blacks were victims of this nefarious deed.

    Funny how that part was carefully ommitted from every print story I can find. Sometimes you learn more about a story by figuring out which parts were intentionally hidden, rather than those which were actually reported on.

    Synthetic marijuana isn’t even marijuana.

    Real marijuana does not kill from overdose.

    You want to reduce the death count? From gang wars, from overdose, from poison sold as something else and adulterated products? Trump tells how.

    https://www.ocregister.com/2017/02/23/trump-was-right-about-the-drug-war-27-years-ago/
    In a speech delivered at the Miami Herald’s Company of the Year Awards luncheon [April 1990], Donald Trump condemned the “war on drugs” as “a joke” and called for the legalization of drugs. “We’re losing badly the war on drugs,” he said. “You have to legalize drugs to win that war. You have to take the profit away from these drug czars.”

      Mac45 in reply to MSimon. | August 17, 2018 at 11:01 pm

      Nearly 70,000 deaths last year from commercial opioids, not marijuana grown in someone’s back yard. 100 people, OD’ed because they bought unknown drugs for recreational use, in a city where legal alcohol is plentiful. Yep. let’s stop all enforcement of drug laws.

Horror? Nightmarish?

No. Despicable? Disgusting? Vile? Selfish?

Yes.

I’ve seen up close and personal people suffering from a fentanyl overdose and having to use Narcan (Naloxone) to try and save their life. It’s insane how people will chase a high and put their life at risk.

It’s going to sound cruel but I think we should stop trying to save these people. You want to take a powerful drug where the just a tiny bit too much can kill you? You take your chances. You either live through it or you die.

I would say people need to stop buying these synthetic drugs but of course that would be ridiculous. People are stupid. They will take this stuff even knowing the risks all to get that high.

    fscarn in reply to Blueshot. | August 17, 2018 at 8:32 am

    Not cruel at all. What you’re arguing for is a proper allocation of resources and simply allowing each individual suffer the consequences of his/her own choices, formerly known as personal responsibility. The snarky expression of “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes” covers the situation.

    Granny in reply to Blueshot. | August 17, 2018 at 8:41 am

    As of 2016 a single dose of Narcan cost $3,750. That is not counting the cost of the EMT, ambulance crews and ER services.

    The public shouldn’t be paying the cost for this stupidity.

      Rduke008 in reply to Granny. | August 17, 2018 at 9:51 am

      Source?

        MajorWood in reply to Rduke008. | August 17, 2018 at 10:41 am

        More like $37.50 There has been a spike in price recently as demand has gone exponential and likely outstripped supply.

        Of course, the irony here is that most of those who overdosed are the types who lecture the rest of us on our violent non-vegan lifestyles. I annoyed one of them in particular back when they were petitioning to legalize MJ. When I asked for a signature, I commented to the person that they themselves were a pretty good argument against legalization. Some people just do not react well to the truth.

    CincyJan in reply to Blueshot. | August 17, 2018 at 9:23 am

    I agree. It’s ridiculous to expect strangers to repeatedly save tour life while you’re busy endangering it. Too bad.

    JackRussellTerrierist in reply to Blueshot. | August 17, 2018 at 10:18 am

    I agree. Thinning the gene pool of people this stupid is a good thing.

    Besides, Nancy Pelosi loves these pushers. We wouldn’t want to offend her by arresting her beloved pets.

    Kepha H in reply to Blueshot. | August 17, 2018 at 10:19 am

    For the same reason, when I am in Japan, I will not eat puffer fish.

    It’s insane how people will chase a high and put their life at risk.

    It is insane. And the insanity has causes.

    Dr. Lonny Shavelson found that 70% of female heroin addicts were sexually abused in childhood.

    Addiction is a symptom of PTSD. Look it up.

      Mac45 in reply to MSimon. | August 17, 2018 at 11:10 pm

      Wrong. PTSD, a disorder which did not even exist 20 years ago, is not the sole, or even the most significant, reason for drug addiction. Alcoholism is a form of drug addiction. And it affects people who show no signs of PTSD. Nicotine addiction is drug addiction. Again, no correlation to PTSD. People, in general, like to experiment with using chemicals to alter their perception of reality. It is part of us. And, some people have a much lower threshold for chemical dependency than others. Also, human beings have a morbid desire to do things which are forbidden or which they have been advised against doing, largely for the thrill. And, finally, people will do the most dangerous and ridiculous things in an attempt to “fit-in” with a group.

      People are not forced by society or some vague pseudo-psychological disorder to use drugs. They dio it willingly. Unfortunately, the effects of drug usage produce negative results which the rest of society has to deal with. How much do you think this little sojourn in in Connecticut cost the public?

So 95 freaking people overdose. Costing hospitals and the state probably millions of dollars in responders and hospital care.

3 arrests?

THIS IS WHY THERE IS A DRUG PROBLEM.

I have no problem with treating people who overdose on drugs, but they have to take personal responsibility for their actions. I am on the fence about legalized marijuana, I don’t think it leads to a healthy lifestyle and despite the claims to the contrary by the pro-marijuana people, the real reason they push it is for the high.

Many people I have known who used marijuana went on to more drugs, tried to get a higher high, or a different high. Gateway? I don’t think so, yet it can be that for some people. When buying illicit drugs, you never know what you are going to get, but I find it hard to feel all that sorry for these people because they made their choice to use drugs. They might not have been what they thought they were getting, but such is the risk you face when you seek these drugs. The marijuana of today is far stronger than it was when I was growing up. The effects are just as bad, if not worse, than drinking is.

Legalizing at least gives some regulation to it, but I’ve known plenty who smoked till they were incapable of doing anything. I also found that many lost ambition in their lives, and I wonder what effect it has on the brain long term. Just like alcohol, these things do their damages.

I think those who use are looking for escape from reality, not enhancement. It speaks poorly for the generations who have been using these drugs for escape.

    Yes. They MUST take personal responsibility for their actions. Children who let themselves get molested deserve their fate. And deserve every punishment we can heap on them.

    Dr. Lonny Shavelson found that 70% of female heroin addicts were sexually abused in childhood.

    Addiction is a symptom of PTSD. Look it up.

There is a viral trend, jumping out of a moving car dancing and jumping back in. Many of the people doing this are the drivers.

On guy who did this got hit by a car driving the other direction. Sadly he didn’t die.

I don’t like people dying but if you engage in this sort of risky behavior, then at least if a lot of these people died it would be a wake up call to the others who are tempted to do this sort of thing.

Have the Russians been blamed, yet?

“A synthetic form of marijuana is believed to be the cause.” The same type of logic that blames guns for mass shootings!

    No, it’s really not… the entire premise of use and misuse of a gun is that it works as designed and intended, firing when you pull the trigger and not firing when you don’t. Incidents are therefore caused by a defect in the user, not a defect in the product.

      Prohibition doesn’t work for drugs.

      It can’t work for guns.

      Give it up.

        Hamburgers are legal. Poisoned hamburgers making 95 people fall ill from a single McDonalds establishment is not something society tolerates. This is a case of extra-bad, extra-dangerous product. Ascribing either sin or virtue to any other aspect is wasted energy.

    Voyager in reply to MarkS. | August 18, 2018 at 12:09 am

    You can have a defective gun that chain fires even when handled in a way that should have been safely. In that case, the fault is traceable to the firearms, and by that, the one who prepared it in a greater measure than the operator. It’s a similar case here: the report is that these were from a specific bad batch of the stuff.

If synthetic marijuana is this inferior to real marijuana, what does this say about synthetic motor oil????

“There is no room in the drug culture for amateurs.” HS Thompson.

My approach now is to qualify everything in terms of a suicide attempt. Obviously, there is a wide variation in risk, but it better gets the message across to addicts when it isn’t called an accidental overdose, but a suicide attempt that succeeded. Similarly, relapses are viewed as a suicide attempt that failed. It is all a game of Russian roulette, where the different types of drugs have different sizes of cylinders.

To me, narcan is like anti-lock brakes and airbags. It instills a false sense of security. There was a study I read which indicated that crashes were now occurring at higher speeds because drivers falsely believed that the car was safer and more controllable, yet the critical factor, reaction time, remains the same.

People on and around the historic New Haven Green near Yale University began falling ill shortly after 8 a.m. Wednesday

What, marijuana users up and about at that time in the morning? Color me skeptical.

As with Prohibition, the war on drugs has had the same outcome with the Mafia and Organized Crime being now part of and/or replaced by Narco-terrorist gangs and those with a wonderful spark of humanity….. MS-13.

Some people write themselves off from reality. Most families that have struggled with family members with addiction give up so much and with little gain most of the time.

I must be stupid, but I would never put something in my body from some stranger on the street who is definitely not my friend, and may have intent to hurt me. As the first commenter says, these folks should be nominated for the Darwin Award for 2018.

The city of New Haven and Yale University have allowed a public park next to one of the most prestigious universities in the world turn into an open air drug market. I guess they are too busy trying to ban plastic straws and offensive Halloween costumes

Sorry,I don’t see the horror. I see rampant stupidity but no horror. Actions have consequences. How sorry would people feel for some drunk that rammed his car into a tree? It would be more like, “thank God he/she didn’t hurt someone else”. That’s my feeling about pot-heads.

Just to make it clear I am talking about “recreational” users not those who take marijuana for legitimate medical reasons.

    I don’t think I have ever met a pot user who didn’t have at least mild PTSD.

    Consider – about 10% of the population has a PTSD problem. And about 10% of the population are regular pot users.

    Addiction is a symptom of PTSD. Look it up.

    MajorWood in reply to kenoshamarge. | August 18, 2018 at 1:44 pm

    Legitimate medical use of marijuana is limited to use as an anti-emetic to concurrent use of specific chemotherapeutic agents to ensure proper nutrition. Period! Everything else is bullshit logic and reasoning applied to mostly factitious disorders. Saying that one is treating “chronic fatigue syndrome” is more socially acceptable that admitting one is a pathetic drug addict, as is saying that one is going to the dispensary as opposed to visiting the drug dealer. As someone who doesn’e it anything, I am constantly entertained by the mental gymnastics that people put themselves through to rationalize a behavior pattern. The late Richard Jeni summed it up best. “In California people are described as mellow and laid-lack. In New York, those same people are described as boring and passed-out.” So when someone who smokes a lot of weed tells you that it hasn’t affected their life, it is best to treat them as an unreliable reporter.