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A synthetic marijuana package obtained from an Upstate University Hospital patient.

(Provided)

Article by Syracuse.com's Samantha House and James T. Mulder

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The Syracuse Rescue Mission staff tried to keep track of the flood of people overdosing near the Syracuse shelter Wednesday.

But after 15 overdoses, the shelter started to lose count, a mission official said.

A surge of overdoses struck Syracuse on Wednesday, inundating emergency responders and emergency rooms with a rash of drug-sick patients, according to hospital officials and emergency responders. The culprit was synthetic marijuana -- a drug better known as "spike," they said.

There were so many overdoses that American Medical Response sent out seven extra ambulances to deal with the deluge of calls, an AMR official said.

In one day, Syracuse hospitals told syracuse.com | The Post-Standard they treated 18 overdoses:

Upstate University Hospital: 11

Crouse Hospital: 6

St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center: 1

Typically, the hospitals reported they could go a week without seeing any synthetic drug overdoses.

At least one hospital reported seeing more overdoses on Thursday.

Many of the overdose calls on Wednesday happened near the Rescue Mission's Dickerson Street campus.

The shelter typically deals with one or two spike users a month, said Corey Kociela, the Rescue Mission's chief operations officer. On Wednesday, he said there were about 15 to 20 people who overdosed on the synthetic drug.

"It was pretty significant yesterday, more than I've seen," Kociela said.

Many of the sickened users weren't even Rescue Mission clients, Kociela said. They appeared to overdose while passing through the campus -- which Kociela said is targeted by drug dealers who prey on the shelter's vulnerable clients.

Most of the people who overdosed were "spaced out" and walking like zombies, Kociela said. One man thrashed violently on the ground, he said.

The batch of the drug responsible for the overdoses is going by the street moniker "Dopey."

Troy Hogue, regional director of American Medical Response, said "Dopey" is a new version of synthetic marijuana.

Many of the people who overdosed Thursday were in the Dickerson Street area, Hogue said. Some were combative, some unconscious and others had seizures, breathing problems, increased heart rates and memory issues, he said.

"No two cases are exactly alike," Hogue said.

Crouse Hospital's emergency room, which normally sees one or two synthetic drug overdoses a week, received six cases Wednesday from the Rescue Mission, said Bob Allen, a hospital vice president.

Syracuse police were dispatched to 15 overdose calls in 24 hours, said Sgt. Richard Helterline, a police spokesman. In some cases, multiple people called about a single overdose. In others, police could not find patients when they arrived on scene.

This is not the first time the city has had a problem with synthetic drugs.

A large percentage of calls are related to synthetic marijuana at Syracuse Fire Station #1 in Syracuse, N.Y., Friday, September 18, 2015. Scott Schild | sschild@syracuse.com

Syracuse experienced a surge of synthetic drug overdoses in 2012 and 2015. Users became violent after abusing the drug known as "bath salts" in 2012. In 2015, officers encountered spike users who were foaming at the mouth or tried to box with cars.

Dr. Ross Sullivan, an emergency medicine doctor and toxicologist at Upstate, said synthetic drugs never went away, even though they have not been receiving as much attention in the news media.

"Users got smarter with their doses and brands, and manufacturers changed their formulations," he said.

When people start overdosing, it can be a sign there's a new batch of synthetic drugs with a different potency circulating in the community, he said. Synthetic drugs are often sold now on the street as single cigarettes for $1 or $2 each, he said.

Sullivan said it's too soon to know if this is an isolated situation or the beginning of another sustained wave of synthetic drug overdoses like Central New York saw in 2015 and 2012.

Upstate University Hospital saw another three or four more suspected synthetic drug overdoses cases today, according to Sullivan.

"It's worrisome," he said.

The Rescue Mission staff is also worried about the string of synthetic marijuana overdoses. Kocielo said staff will continue to push drugs away from the shelter.

"We're just concerned for the people we serve, and we're doing as much as possible to keep the drug dealers away," he said. "We know it's a community problem, and we're in it with everyone."