There have been at least 151 arrests this year at the West End rail station in connection with downtown Dallas' synthetic drug epidemic.

That's nearly four K2 arrests a week at the busy train stop between January and August.

Dallas police have tried several crackdowns in the past two years, but little has stymied the spread of K2 use.

"We have a drug whose supply we cannot regulate," said City Council member Philip Kingston, expressing fears at this week's public safety committee meeting that police are fighting a losing battle.

The drug — a blend of herbs and chemicals that is smoked like marijuana — is cheap, and dealers peddle the K2 cigarettes to homeless people at downtown rail stations and shelters.

Dallas Area Rapid Transit police, Dallas County Community College District law enforcement, Dallas Police Department officers and the Downtown Safety Patrol will be meeting monthly to discuss crime statistics to make rail stations — especially the highly trafficked downtown stations — safer.

A man lies handcuffed and unresponsive as first responders attend to him at a DART rail stop during rush hour in downtown Dallas in 2014, the year Dallas police say K2 began to take over downtown. (File Photo / The Associated Press)

Of the 46 DART stations in Dallas, most crime and K2 arrests occur at a handful of stops, including in the central business district and Deep Ellum.

Other high-crime stations are the Kiest, Park Lane, Bachman and Morrell stops.

Many of the criminal complaints at the rail stations are linked to drug sales. And the partnership among the various law enforcement agencies will streamline police responses to the stations and surrounding areas, which fall under different jurisdictions.

Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall said DART will be able to talk directly with Dallas officers to have "real-time communication relative to incidents going on."

Though the groups have worked together on crackdowns in the past, this is the first time they will have access to shared radio communications and meet monthly to go over crime statistics at Dallas police headquarters.

Because they have operations in six counties, DART officers "routinely work in cooperation with other local law enforcement agencies," said spokesman Mark Ball.

The goal is to put more uniformed officers as a crime deterrent at the rail stations and nearby businesses, schools and homes.

"I've found the bad guys don't like to hang around with people in uniform," said Police Chief Joseph Hannigan of the Dallas County Community College District.

The synthetic drug is also difficult to regulate. Manufacturers regularly change the chemical compounds in K2, known as "spice," and law enforcement struggles to keep up with banning the new substances.

Council member Kingston said an ordinance limiting high-volume alcohol sales around downtown has reduced incidents of public drunkenness and violence. He suggested the city implement something similar to prevent the sale of products needed to make K2 cigarettes.

It's already illegal in Dallas to use paraphernalia for smoking K2 and other illegal drugs.

And law enforcement has targeted smoke shops found selling synthetic cannabinoids. On Monday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton lobbed a $40,000 fine at Dallas' Hi Flamez and owner Mohamed Bakr to stop selling the synthetic drugs.

Bakr was accused in January of selling K2. Undercover Dallas officers found packages labeled Scooby Snax, Kush and White Tiger, which all tested positive for synthetic cannabinoids.

"The sale of dangerous, deadly drugs must be put to a stop," Paxton said in a written statement. "Businesses that sell synthetic drugs will not escape punishment."

The drug can make users violent toward others or themselves and can cause them to become catatonic.

Social workers in the Dallas Police Department and Dallas Fire-Rescue are hosting educational meetings to show homeless people how dangerous using K2 is.

In September, 22-year-old Branden Holbert was accused of stabbing two women downtown. Police records show Holbert was homeless. The previous month, officers found him passed out with a K2 cigarette by his hands in front of the Downtown Safety Patrol office on Akard Street.

Police officials hope the educational meetings can prevent future incidents like the September attacks.

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