Crime & Safety
Austin Synthetic Marijuana Overdoses Rise To 36 In Three-Day Period
Since Friday, three dozen transports to the hospital have taken place from the downtown region blamed on K2.
UPDATE: The number of overdose victims requiring medical attention of Austin-Travis County EMS medics rose to 36 on Saturday, officials said. Of those, 27 patients were taken to area hospitals after ingesting the K2 synthetic drug in a single, 24-hour period earlier.
K2 UPDATE: 7a-7p 27 pt contacts w/11 txpts bringing total to 36 transports since Friday 3:30p. Monitoring continues. Updates as necessary.
— ATCEMS (@ATCEMS) November 27, 2016
Read more about this latest rash of K2 incidents below.
From earlier:
Find out what's happening in Austinfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
AUSTIN, TX — Several people fell ill after ingesting the synthetic marijuana dubbed K2 in downtown Austin on Friday evening, with at least a dozen requiring hospitalization.
Austin-Travis County EMS officials said multiple people along 6th Street at the corner of Neches Street required medical attention beginning at about 3:30 p.m. Patients were transported to various hospitals as a result, medics said.
Find out what's happening in Austinfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Multiple K2 patients treated & txpt'd from 6TH/Neches; 5 total patients thus far, 5 ambulances & 2 commanders involved to this point, MTF
— ATCEMS (@ATCEMS) November 25, 2016
This is hardly the first time medics have had to tend to people experiencing medical trauma as a result of ingesting the synthetic drug K2, which has become a local scourge. In late August, about 70 people had to be taken to the hospital in a single 24-hour period after ingesting the drug.
Prior to that mass ingestion, police announced they had arrested 13 people in connection to the sale of the K2 narcotic earlier that month.
In September, police arrested a local couple — furniture mover Charles Herd, 56, and his companion Juanita Price, 41 — accusing them of being behind the distribution of the K2 drug that led to previous overdoses.
>>> Image via Shutterstock
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