Not to enforce a stereotype here but you’ll find most peeps who enjoy a toke of the herbal medication tend to play it pretty chilled. Order a pizza, maybe play some FIFA on the Xbox, kick back and relax – it’s a tough life but someone has to do it.

Then there’s the folks smoking K2, a synthetic marijuana that seems to drive certain people to strip down to their birthday suits and terrorise the citizens of New York. Police are dealing with something of an epidemic as the Daily Beast reports:

Made up of a mixture of herbs, K2 is sprayed with synthetic cannabinoids that are untested on humans. The hallucinogen has sent more than 5,000 people to poison control centers (sic) already this year.

Use of the drug has been skyrocketing since 2011, bringing with it horrific scenes of psychotic breaks, suicide, and murder. This week the focus is on New York City, where the NYPD released two tapes of people allegedly high on K2/Spice. One shows a homeless man naked on all fours howling at a car; the other, a man breaking through a wooden fence.

It turns out the man trying to break through a wooden fence is actually on PCP but his behaviour is not all that dissimilar to that of K2 users. The scourge is so bad that NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton held a press conference to discuss the drug:

Bratton, who said he’s concerned about the potential for overdose and death, dubbed it “weaponized” marijuana. “A number of individuals, when under the influence of this drug, are relatively impervious to pain and also have significant enhancement of their physical strength,” he said. Adding later: “You’re going to see much more of it in the short term.”

K2 is sold at gas stations and smoke shops across the country and costs just $5 a pop, although the packaging makes little mentioning of some of the nastier effects of imbibing the substance:

Side effects include paranoid delusions, racing heartbeat, disorganised thoughts, severe agitation, assaultive behaviour, suicidal ideation, and catatonia, among others.

Maybe it’s best everyone stick to that sick indoor ‘your mate’ enjoys so much, I’ve yet to see anyone arrested for parading naked in front of a pizza delivery guy, although I did once see a movie that started in similar fashion.

[sources:dailybeast&dailymail]