In a scene that has been compared to something from The Walking Dead, at least 33 people have collapsed in the street at the same time.
The incident took place in Brooklyn, New York, and witnesses say that the streets were littered with people vomiting and shaking.
The hospitalised people had allegedly smoked the same bad batch of K2, a synthetic type of marijuana.
A witness told the New York Daily News:
It was like a scene out of The Walking Dead. They were zombied out.
It was a horrible scene. They were laid out twitching on the floor. Some of them were motionless. This is nothing you’d want your kids to see.
Use of the drug in Brooklyn has spiralled out of control and residents are calling for people to stop smoking the cheap synthetic cannabinoid.
Dennis Gonzalez, of Bushwick, told WNBC-TV:
It’s gotten out of hand. They even sleep in the street. We have to walk around them. It’s just too much to keep under control.
Since last year, more than 6,000 people have been hospitalised in New York City because of the drug. It is now illegal to sell, but the new laws don’t seem to have deterred users or dealers.
Fin Perez, an addict who has been hospitalised by the drug, told NBC:
Certain stores that sell it, they have guys that walk around and sell it because they know police are here watching the stores,” he said. “So they got guys walking around, two to three streets away. Everyone knows who the guys are.
All of the patients were taken to the nearby Woodhull Hospital for treatment.
