Late last month more than 50 people in Brooklyn were hospitalized after what law enforcement believes was exposure to synthetic marijuana. The issue hit closer to home this month after a story broke that a Durham County resident experienced severe bleeding presumably from the same thing.
Also called K2 or Spice, it comes in colorful, playful wrappers and for a while was available behind the counter at many local convenience stores. Unlike marijuana, this drug is synthetic and is often laced with rat poison and other unknown chemicals.
Jenny Wiley is a senior fellow in behavioral pharmacology at RTI International. Wiley joins host Frank Stasio to talk about her decades-long research into cannabinoids. Wiley details how this drug was invented, why it is dangerous and her belief that it should not be called marijuana.