At least 76 people have overdosed on K2, a synthetic strand of marijuana, and 52 of the incidents occurred at the New Haven Green Park near Yale University in a 24-hour period, authorities said Thursday.
This is the third incident in 2018 that has occurred in New Haven involving the K2 drug, which mimics the effects of marijuana, and city police are warning the community not to purchase the drug at or around the historic park. (RELATED: One Borough In NYC Saw 56 Synthetic Weed Overdoses Over Four Days)
“Do not come down to the Green and purchase this K2,” city Police Chief Anthony Campbell said Wednesday during a news conference. “It is taking people out very quickly, people having respiratory failure. Don’t put your life in harm.”
Police arrested three individuals whose names have not yet been released in connection with the incident, according to reports by CBS News on Thursday.
Six victims of the overdose were near death while others exhibited “a multitude of signs and symptoms ranging from vomiting, hallucinating, high blood pressure, shallow breathing, semi-conscious and unconscious states,” said Rick Fontana, New Haven’s director of emergency operations, in an email to CBS News.
Three overdoses occurred Tuesday night, and law enforcement officials received at least 15 calls beginning at 8 a.m. Wednesday, launching a string of nearly 80 overdoses in the city involving patients of all age ranges, according to reports by CBS affiliate WFSB-TV.
Yale, which is positioned in close proximity to Green Park, is not aware of any students from the university who were treated for overdose, Thomas Conroy, a university spokesman, told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
New Haven Mayor Toni Harp requested that extra doses of Narcan, a drug used to reverse the symptoms of narcotics, be delivered to emergency responders, and the Department of Public Health responded with 50 more doses Thursday to replace the diminishing supply, WFSB-TV reported.
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