Unknown ingredients make synthetic marijuana overdoses hard to treat

An emergency medicine doctor says the unknown mixture of chemicals in synthetic marijuana make it difficult to treat people that overdose on the drug.

Dr. Chris Sampson with MU Health Care said that he’s seen nearly a dozen people come into the University Hospital ER from overdoses in the last day. Symptoms, he said, range from total unconsciousness to extreme irritability.

“Unfortunately, in the emergency departments, it’s a mystery and we don’t know initially what’s going on with the patient,” Sampson told ABC 17 News. “Which makes our jobs both challenging and interesting on a daily basis.”

Columbia police said it was searching for the people distributing the recent batch of synthetic marijuana, nicknamed K2, that they believe is causing the overdoses. So far, no one has died.

Sampson said the composition of the drug is constantly changing, which helps people selling the product avoid problems with the law. The changes, however, can often lead to serious health problems for those that smoke K2. In turn, Sampson said, doctors struggle to figure out what’s causing the person to overdose.

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