Local health and emergency officials are raising alarms about the chemical based artificial marijuana kn own as 'Kush' which is now making its way through the region, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
The San Antnoio Fire Department says EMS officers have been disturbingly busy recently hauling people who have consumed this synthetic marijuana to emergency rooms within the past two weeks.
"We're seeing people in an almost comotose state going to emergency departments," Dr. Shawn Varney, who is a professor of emergency medicine at U.T. Health San Antonio and the medical director of the South Texas Poison Center.
Dr. Varney says the problem is this 'Kush' contains up to twenty times the level of THC, which is the active ingredient which creates the marijuana 'high' that is found in traditional marijuana.
"Drug sellers are peddling a batch that is more pure than other batches," Varney said.
He says side effects of Kush, which can appear even if a person does not 'overdose' or consume an unusually large quantity of the drug, include combative behavior, palpitations or fast heart beats, high blood pressure, stroke symptoms, seizures or death.
Dr. Varney also says side effects include psychosis or what is known by ER doctors as the 'Zombie Trance.'
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