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Dr. Ross Sullivan, an Upstate emergency room doctor, shows synthetic marijuana packages obtained from patients.

(James T. Mulder)

Syracuse, N.Y. -- Local hospitals are seeing a surge of patients seeking emergency care after using synthetic marijuana that is causing seizures, tremors, high blood pressure and violent behavior.

Some are so violent, Rural Metro emergency technicians are giving them strong sedatives to knock them out. The Syracuse Police Department said its officers have been responding to people on these drugs who are foaming at the mouth and trying to box with cars. Sale or possession of synthetic marijuana is illegal.

Upstate University Hospital's emergency room has seen about 30 cases in the last five days. Some patients are coming in unconscious and have to be intubated, said Dr. Ross Sullivan, an emergency room doctor. He said other local hospitals are seeing the same thing.

The Upstate Poison Control Center has received 51 calls in the last 72 hours about synthetic drugs users in the Syracuse area who need hospital care.

"We've notice an alarming increase in synthetic marijuana cases," said Michele Caliva, the center's director. "It's very disconcerting."

A synthetic marijuana package obtained from a hospital patient.

She and other health officials held a news conference this afternoon at Upstate to alert the public to the problem.

The state issued an alert that said synthetic marijuana use has sent more than 160 patients to hospitals since April 8.

The synthetic marijuana is often called Spike or Spice and has many brand names such as "Geeked Up," "Caution" or "Keisha Kole." Most of the patients have been using the drug for years without experiencing these medical problems, Sullivan said.

"We think there is a new chemical in the street drugs causing there to be profound changes in the patients' symptoms," Sullivan said. Health officials don't know where the patients are getting the drugs.

So far, the outbreak appears to be confined to Syracuse and New York City.

Some of the patients suddenly turn violent, said Butch Hoffman of Rural Metro. That's why emergency medical technicians have been advised to give violent patients strong sedatives, he said.

Central New York saw an epidemic of synthetic drug use in 2012. Some users of these drugs, known as "bath salts," became extremely violent and bizarre. A man on bath salts held a knife to a 5-year-old child's throat. A woman on the drugs strangled her pit bull then died of cardiac arrest.

The community responded with drug raids, new laws and public education efforts. The incidents faded away.

But Sullivan said synthetic drugs never completely disappeared. He said most patients hospitals are seeing now are not as violent as the bath salts users were a few years ago.

"We're definitely in new territory here," Sullivan said.



Anyone with questions about the synthetic marijuana outbreak can call the Upstate Poison Control Center at 1-800-222-1222 for more information.

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