K2 Eyed as Culprit After 14 People Overdose in Brooklyn

NEW YORK — Efraín Rodriguez said he had never witnessed anything like what happened on Saturday near the Brooklyn cafe where he works.

As he was standing outside the Loma Coffee Shop on Broadway, near Myrtle Avenue, in the heart of a bustling transit hub, several people who were smoking started falling to the ground, Rodriguez, 47, a janitor, recalled on Sunday.

“They would take two puffs and bam, they’d drop right there,” he said. “People just started falling to the ground. Right here, there were three strewn on the sidewalk,” he added, pointing toward the pavement. “Over there, two more,” he said, gesturing down Broadway. “The medics were here working until 9 p.m.”

In all, the emergency workers treated 14 people believed to have been sickened by the synthetic drug known as K2, the police said. Some patients were found unconscious, struggling to breathe and vomiting. They were all given doses of naloxone, an opioid overdose reversal drug, and taken to hospitals, the police said. All of them are expected to survive.

Investigators on Sunday were trying to determine the source of the potent drug, and were seeking search warrants for two delis where three men were arrested Saturday for selling untaxed cigarettes, the police said.

Raddwan Alsaidi, 24, of the Bronx, and Marcial Cortez, 26, of Brooklyn, were arrested at the Big Boy Deli at 930 Broadway; Ashraf Rayshani, 22, of the Bronx, was arrested at the Star Deli and Grill at 943 Broadway. All were charged with selling untaxed cigarettes, and Cortez was also charged with criminal possession of a weapon, a knife.

A fourth man, Tyquan Holley, was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, after a police officer spotted him holding what was believed to be synthetic cannabis outside 1139 Myrtle Ave., the police said.

Big Boy Deli was closed Sunday, and police officers were standing guard outside. Star Deli was open for business.

The overdose was a reminder of a quiet scourge affecting places around the country that has been overshadowed in recent years by a lethal opioid epidemic. In New York City, years of efforts had been aimed at stamping out drugs like K2, which are made of plant matter that has been sprayed with mind-altering substances that mimic the effect of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. But eradicating synthetic cannabinoids has been a struggle as their use persists: City hospitals this year have recorded 600 emergency room visits from patients suffering from their use.

New York is one of more than 40 states that have banned the drugs, which are commonly called synthetic marijuana and marketed under designer names like Spice, Green Giant Scooby Snax and Mr. Bad Guy. The Drug Enforcement Administration has banned more than two dozen substances used to make them. In New York City, subway posters warn that the drugs contain no marijuana and are potentially deadly.

“While the packaging may look uniform and professional,” said Dr. Edward Fishkin, chief medical officer of Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center, “the contents may vary wildly in dosage and potency, which can result in a sudden wave of users needing emergency care.”

The drugs remain difficult to stamp out, in part because their makeup is constantly changing, a problem that also makes it difficult to assess how dangerous they are, experts said. There are also divisions with among policymakers and the public over how to combat their use without criminalizing drug addiction.

“These are synthetic drugs that are manufactured with remarkable creativity such that lawmakers are facing challenges in keeping ahead, said Eugene O’Donnell, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a former New York City police officer. “Restricting access to one ingredient touches off a search for a replacement. If you can whip up an intoxicating or stimulating substance readily and legally available, you can avoid prosecution.”

The incident on Saturday was at least the second mass overdose near the intersection, which is on the border of Bedford-Stuyvesant and Bushwick. In July 2016, 33 people overdosed on a similar substance in the same area.

The drug in the 2016 overdose, a synthetic cannabinoid called AMB-FUBINACA that was originally developed by the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, is 85 times more powerful than marijuana. Its presence prompted fears among doctors and law enforcement authorities of more potent illicit drugs to come.

On Sunday, Councilman Robert E. Cornegy Jr. called on the city to step up enforcement on the retailers believed to be supplying the drug to addicts who fan out into the neighborhood, startling residents with their zombielike appearance. After overdoses from drugs like K2 surged in New York in 2015, the authorities carried out months of raids and the city passed legislation banning synthetic cannabinoids. The law also threatened the owners of businesses where K2 was peddled with shop closings, hefty fines and jail time.

As a result, city officials said, emergency room visits plummeted 85 percent. But Cornegy said the scourge has persisted because bodegas and delis in the area are able to skirt the new law by using “runners,” people loosely associated with the business, who stand outside and deal drugs.

Cornegy called on the Police Department to create a unit dedicated to cracking down on K2 and other synthetics drugs, which he said were disproportionately affecting black and Latino communities, like those in his district, which includes Bedford-Stuyvesant.

“We need extra eyes in places like this, particularly this corridor,” Cornegy said, adding that law enforcement officials had told him there were often not enough resources to police the area intensively.

J. Peter Donald, a spokesman for the Police Department, said his agency will review its efforts in the area of the overdoses. “Whatever Police Department resources are needed to address the crime problems in the area and the conditions, will be deployed as necessary,” he said.

Residents have long expressed concern about the drug dealers who blend in among the heavy pedestrian traffic and use the shade of the overhead train tracks as cover to ply their trade.

Monica Adames, 34, a cook at the Loma Coffee Shop, said the police needed to patrol the intersection round-the-clock.

“Whenever police officers leave, they start dropping like zombies,” she said. “We’re tired of this.”