Woman overdoses on “Scooby Snax…”
HYANNIS – Last evening at about 10:30pm, police and rescue responded to a local home to help an unresponsive young woman.
The woman had been ingesting a product called “Scoobie Snax.”
Scooby Snax is being sold “legally” as a packaged “potpourri” at certain mini-marts and convenience stores in the downtown area.
Young people are buying these potpourri products and smoking them as a form of fake marijuana.
Even though these potpourri products are advertised as not being for human consumption, the veiled truth is they are most certainly being marketed and sold as a synthetic form of marijuana.
But these products are anything but marijuana.
The potpourri substance is laced with dangerous chemicals which thrust its users into various levels of medical crisis. A few may find some of the adverse side effects mind altering and new. But the reality is the product brings on symptoms similar to an acute anxiety attack with racing heart-rates and elevated blood pressure. In other words, it makes the user extremely sick. That coupled with the symptoms of sudden brain trauma and you have an idea of what these drugs really do.
During the symptoms of “synthetic marijuana” overdose, patients may become confused and suffer frightening hallucinations. Many will complain of not knowing who or where they are for extended lengths of time. This causes some users to panic and run. The racing heart and extreme blood pressure may cause some to overheat and remove clothing. It’s not unusual for emergency workers to need to restrain extreme cases.
Again, these products produce side effects not anything like the effects of marijuana. Instead, it’s the voluntary poisoning of your brain and body, often with irreversible damage.
The makers of these “potpourri” products are continually changing the makeup of the chemicals in order to skirt government regulations. They come with seemingly harmless names such as “Scooby Snax, K2, and Spice…” They are also marketed as “herbal incense.”
Calling these products “synthetic marijuana” is a misnomer. The effects of smoking or ingesting these products are unstable and unpredictable. They can cause seizures and death. Medical toxicologists see them as dangerous poisons which have been known to bring on psychotic episodes and severe irreversible mental health conditions.
These products are so dangerous, local police have asked Hyannis shop owners to voluntarily take them off their shelves. Some have complied, while others refuse to cooperate.
Let’s be clear about this… the shops that are selling these products are intentionally poisoning and harming people in our community.
The woman who overdosed and became unresponsive last evening was lucky in that she was eventually able to walk herself out to the awaiting ambulance. She was transported to CCH and her current condition is uncertain.
Rest assured, HN will continue to research and expose this dangerous health threat.
In the meantime, do not mess around with these products. Nobody really knows what’s in them. The chemicals are dangerous and not meant for human consumption.
In short, we’re talking about poison being disguised as something it most definitely is not.
The following is an ABC newscast of an incident in Dallas last spring where nearly 120 people overdosed on synthetic marijuana in a span of just 5 days… [Press play]
11/12/2014
Robert Bastille,
