Police Raid 5 Bodegas in Brooklyn after 33 Suspected of K2 overdosing, “a synthetic Marijuana”

New York City police raided five bodegas in Brooklyn on Wednesday, a day after a wave of suspected overdoses from the synthetic drug K2 sent at least 33 people to the hospital and raised fears that the use of a substance that officials had indicated was on the wane was instead on the rise.

The police found no K2, which is illegal in New York State — in any of their raids, James Byrne, a spokesman for the Police Department, said. People at three stores, including the Big Boy Deli on Broadway, were arrested on charges of selling improperly taxed cigarettes, Mr. Byrne said.The raids were just one reverberation from the localized public health emergency.

On Wednesday, there were few signs in the area that the crisis had abated at the bustling intersection. Near where emergency workers found the first eight people on Tuesday, a shoeless man sat on a stump staring into space, a “No Smoking K2” sign behind him. He got up and muttered as he walked down the block.

The overdoses have come on the heels of what had seemed like a series of accomplishments in the fight against the drug after public officials had warned of a public health crisis last summer.

In September, federal and city authorities conducted a sweeping crackdown, raiding 90 bodegas and charging 10 people related to the sales of K2. In May, city officials, including Mayor Bill de Blasio; the City Council speaker, Melissa Mark-Viverito; and Dr. Mary T. Bassett, the health commissioner, spoke of an 85 percent reduction in K2-related emergency room visits, citing the work of law enforcement and other city agencies.

But the overdoses this week were a sign that the potent drug, which experts say is made more appealing by prices as low as a $1 a cigarette, was still a force.

Agent Hunt said most K2 originated in China, where the chemicals that give the drug its potency are produced. Agent Hunt said the large number of overdoses on Tuesday was probably the result of a “bad batch.”

Dr. Robert Chin, the chief of the emergency department at the Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center, which treated the group of 33 people, said the patients were brought in by emergency medical workers in waves; he said the patients were extremely lethargic and disoriented.“I could describe it as a deep sleep,” Dr. Chin said.

Though the police raids came up empty for the drug, residents continued to point at the local convenience store. 

Credit:http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/14/nyregion/k2-overdoses-brooklyn-police-raids.html