Coming soon to Queens?

From PIX11:

It's a crisis that's left thousands of New Yorkers on the brink of death in the past couple of years, and now it's happened again.

Mass overdoses of the synthetic marijuana called K2 continue in New York City, and one intersection, on the border of Bed-Stuy and Bushwick, has been hit particularly hard.

The corner of Broadway and Myrtle Avenue has been the scene of mass overdoses at least twice in the last two years. Over the past weekend, five more people overdosed near the intersection. It is clearly a problem. However, the local council member said, five overdoses is an improvement.

Is this the way to stop rampant K2 use?

From CBS 2:

Neighborhoods demanding a crackdown on the dangerous synthetic drug K2 rallied today describing the way the narcotic poisons their communities.

The neighborhoods might be different but the effects are the same, reports CBS2’s Marc Liverman.

CBS2 exclusive video taken back in 2016 show people on K2 passed out on chairs in the middle of the sidewalk, seen again in 2018 all around New York City.

Others are seen leaning against buildings and nodding out as mothers pushed their strollers close by. That was in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx, and now it’s happening in Williamsbridge.

Just ask pastor Janet Hodge.

“Every morning that we arrive, we find that people have used the bathroom on our property,” she said. “Every day I come outside and I find that there are men and women loitering on our stoops and they are in a stupor.”

“We have people walking around zombie-like, in catatonic states, up and down White Plains Road,” said State Senator Jamaal Bailey.

At a rally Monday, local politicians and residents said enough is enough. King introducing new legislation that would hold landlords and area businesses accountable.

“The store will be shut down and you will not be able to reopen the same business or rent it out to the same business,” he said.

The new legislation would also slap on a $100,000 fine on any business caught selling the synthetic cannabinoid.

K2 profits may fund terrorism

From PIX11:

K2 traffickers import chemicals that are mixed in China, mostly receiving them in the mail, and then spray the chemicals on dried leaves and package the product in colorful bags. The fake pot, which is then rolled in paper and smoked, has been sold for years over the counter in tobacco shops and bodegas.

The profits are enormous, and that’s remained a worry for the federal government, which acknowledges that millions of dollars have been wired overseas, possibly to pay for terror training and plots.

“It’s a concern that money from some of these organizations has gone back to countries in conflict,” the DEA’s Hunt told PIX11. “Yemen. Jordan. Syria. So, anytime we see money going back to these countries, it’s a concern for law enforcement, that it could be going to fund terrorism.”