In Brooklyn, New York streets have been littered with "zombie-like" people due to the consummation of a synthetic drug.
On Wednesday, a study about the deadly substance was published in the New England Journal of Medicine stating that, "all of whom had a degree of altered mental status that was described by bystanders as 'zombielike'." The truth is, these people had a designer drug overdose which raises the danger signal simultaneously in drug enforcement group and medical community that is more likely to pose more powerful and life-threatening drugs to show up.
According to a report from The New York Times, 18 affected men from Brooklyn, NY were rushed to the hospital on the same day due to the drug overdose. The drug was classified as a synthetic cannabinoid named AMB-FUBINACA and was initially developed by pharmacological firm Pfizer.
A team of author's report shed some light on the developing world of synthetic drugs which are rising progressively powerful even as the manufacturer of the illegal substance continue to make new chemical compounds to avoid distinguishment. Generally, the drugs are categorized "synthetic marijuana" but a University of California clinical chemist in San Francisco said that the name given was perilously ambiguous.
He said, "There is this false idea out there that these drugs are safe because no one overdoses on marijuana."
Based on lab study, the drug consumed in Brooklyn, known by its street name as AK-47 24 Karat Gold was in fact as powerful as the major substance in the marijuana plant which is the THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, of up to 85%.
According to WebMD, the drug was deceptively sold as imitation pot that prompted the "zombie" epidemic in a New York City community last summer was substantially more powerful than real cannabis, investigators said.
During the Brooklyn incident, thirty-three victims are reportedly intoxicated and become immobile after smoking the synthetic drug. Eighteen of the affected persons were brought to the hospital for urgent treatment.
