Warning in Interior B.C. about ‘trippy’ drug linked to ‘zombie’ outbreak in U.S.
KAMLOOPS, B.C. — The British Columbia Interior Health authority is warning street-drug users of a synthetic cannabinoid that has been linked to a so-called “zombie” outbreak in New York.
Chief medical health officer Dr. Trevor Corneil says tests at a Kamloops overdose-prevention site found the powerful drug mixed with heroin, fentanyl and caffeine.
The authority warns that users can look like they have overdosed on opioids, but they won’t respond to naloxone and they can experience “speedy” or “trippy” symptoms with possible hallucinations.
A 2017 article in the New England Journal of Medicine says the drug caused a mass intoxication of 33 people in New York City in July 2016 and was described in the media as a “zombie” outbreak because of the appearance of those who took the drug.