WFSB Channel 3Synthetic marijuana becoming problem

Synthetic marijuana becoming problem

Law enforcement agencies say young people are smoking synthetic marijuana with serious outcomes.

"It's devastating to the community. Devastating to the club members," said John Barbagallo with the Norfolk Curling Club.

Last December, investigators say a pair of teens who had been smoking synthetic marijuana went on a small arson spree in the Northwest corner of the state and torched the Norfolk Curling Club.

And there are many more cases linked to the dangerous substance. Fourteen cadets were expelled from the Coast Guard Academy in January for getting high on synthetic marijuana.

This month in Glastonbury, police arrested a woman for getting a 13-year-old sick on the stuff.

It is also suspected Hollywood actress Demi Moore was on the drug when her friend made a panicked 911 call earlier this month.

There are a number of harmful effects people feel when they smoke synthetic marijuana, including nausea, hallucinations, delusions and even seizures.

Danyal Ibrahim, the Chief of Toxicology at Saint Francis Hospital, has seen four people in the emergency room suffering from symptoms connected to synthetic marijuana abuse over the past year.

"The effects of it, it seems like a lot more exaggerated effects, unlike when people use marijuana," he said.

Torrington police Lt. Michael Emanuel says his department has seen an uptick of people using synthetic marijuana. He said it started in the summer of 2010.

He and others say the problem is that synthetic marijuana, right now, is perfectly legal in many states including Connecticut. And of course there's always the internet.

We found it easily, including a few stores just a short distance from our Rocky Hill studios.

Torrington police officer Michael Emanuel wants to outlaw it.

"There are warnings with this, there are problems with this, you could end up in the hospital," he said. 

A bill sponsored by State Sen. Andrea Stillman of Waterford did pass through the state Legislature and was signed by the governor, banning the sale of anything with the set of controlled substances in k2.. It is supposed to go into effect as soon as next month. This comes on top of a temporary federal ban from a year ago.

The problem is, according to Emanuel, the makers of k2, along with other manufacturers, have adjusted their formulas.

"They remove one molecule from the equation from the chemical components and now we have something on the shelf just as dangerous," he said.

Stillman believes all forms of synthetic marijuana will still be banned in Connecticut soon.

"The bill was written broadly enough so that those new iterations of k2 can be captured under the existing legislation," she said.

Then there is the question of enforcement. At this point the plan is to leave it up to local and state police to monitor the sale of synthetic marijuana in stores, much like the way they try to prevent sales of cigarettes to minors.

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