The only thing more annoying than a pretentious hipster is a pretentious zombie hipster. Just ask first responders who were called to a mass overdose event in Brooklyn last July. The neighborhood near a subway station on the border of Bushwick and Bedford-Stuyvesant (“Bed-Stuy” if you’re cool), has been a hotbed of synthetic cannabinoid use in the past year, much to the concern of residents and city officials. (Synthetic cannabinoid, by the by, is also known as K2 or spice.) In the event on July 12, 2016, more than 33 people reportedly overdosed on highly potent synthetic drugs that induced a zombie-like state. Witnesses said people collapsed on the sidewalk and subway platforms, unconscious or crumpled on the pavement, breathing heavily and vomiting. Basically, it was like a scene from my 21st birthday party.
All (well, most) joking aside, this incident resurfaced recently in an article in the New York Times because it is the subject of a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The report is based on blood and urine samples drawn from the people who ingested the synthetic drugs and were taken to Brooklyn-area hospitals that day. It’s ground-breaking because it’s the first chance researchers have had to get a detailed look at the impact of this class of powerful synthetic cannabinoid drugs. Calling these drugs “synthetic marijuana” is misleading because people think you can’t overdose on pot. The truth is these synthetic drugs aren’t pot and they are very dangerous.
Big Pharma Strikes Again
The study identifies the drug that caused the Brooklyn overdoses in July as a synthetic cannabinoid called AMB-FUBINACA that was originally developed by (surprise, surprise) the pharmaceutical company Pfizer. Because no self-respecting drug addict would want to get high on something that’s spelled like an autocorrect error, the super-catchy street name for the drug was AK-47 24 Karat Gold. The drug is reportedly 85 times more potent than the THC in natural marijuana, according to lab tests.
Synthetic cannabinoid drugs were originally developed by researchers trying to create a drug in the lab that could maintain the medicinal aspects of THC while eliminating the “high” that makes it hard for the mainstream to embrace weed as medicine. Most of this early research was published in academic journals. Similar drugs stated popping up on the black market shortly after the research was made public. According to the Times, Pfizer established a patent for AB-FUBINACA zombie dust in 2009, but it was never tested on humans or mass-produced. However, the patent was public. Black market drug labs overseas apparently stay on top of these types of innovations, so they can use the info to create the next big designer drug.
Always a Step Ahead
Synthetic drugs scare the shit out of me. As a recovering addict, I remember all too well the days of snorting, smoking and shooting whatever I could get my hands on. In the end, it didn’t matter if it was my drug of choice as long as there was a slight chance I could get high. There were plenty of times when I used something sketchy and was pretty sure I would die or at least have some sort of medical emergency. Maybe not Walking Dead status, but I never really knew. Based on my experience, it’s really no surprise that a population that is reckless by definition (drug users) combined with drugs engineered in labs in China or the Ukraine (never tested on humans and mixed by middlemen with no idea what they’re doing) is a recipe for disaster—or at least a zombie outbreak.
As dangerous as these types of drugs are, it’s easy to see why they appeal to hipster addicts. For one thing, the formulas are constantly changing so it’s difficult for law-enforcement to prosecute dealers. As soon as one drug becomes common enough to be banned, black market labs slightly tweak the chemical composition to skirt the law (just another example of how the cool kids hate anything mainstream). To add to the allure, these compounds don’t show up on traditional urine tests.
Dollar Bills Yo
Based on the Brooklyn zombie incident, researchers were finally able to figure out how much money can be made from a synthetic drug like AMB-FUBINACA. According to them, the zombie dust can be found on the dark net in powder form, for $1.95 to $3.80 a gram, or $1,950 to $3,800 a kilogram. Dealers then mix it with cheap herbal products, allowing users to smoke the drug. A sample of the drug recovered in Brooklyn contained 16 milligrams of the drug per gram of smokable mixture. Do the math and you will realize that 1 kilogram of could make as many as 15,625 doses. The reported street price per bag is $35, which means even a halfway decent dealer stands to make nearly $500,000!
In spite of efforts on the part of legislators to educate the public and create laws fast enough to combat the growing threat of synthetic drugs, they’re still on the rise. It’s easy to discount something that has essentially been mislabeled as “fake pot” and laugh about the side effects, especially because big, bad opiates tend to outshine other drugs in any given 24-hour news cycle. Maybe we should remember that just a little more than 100 years ago, a synthetic version of opium was created by a pharmaceutical company called Bayer. It was supposed to have fewer side effects and be less addictive than its natural counterpart.
That drug was heroin.
Sponsored DISCLAIMER: This is a paid advertisement for California Behavioral Health, LLC, a CA licensed substance abuse treatment provider and not a service provided by The Fix. Calls to this number are answered by CBH, free and without obligation to the consumer. No one who answers the call receives a fee based upon the consumer’s choice to enter treatment. For additional info on other treatment providers and options visit www.samhsa.gov.
