They are a toxic cocktail of lethal chemicals created in China and then disguised as plant material here in New York City. Today’s arrests represent law enforcement’s efforts to combat this emerging public threat. Synthetic cannabinoids are anything but safe. Hunt said: “There is a misconception that synthetic cannabinoids, known on the street as ‘synthetic marijuana,’” ‘K2,’ and ‘spice,’ are safe. But its real name is poison.”ĭEA Special Agent in Charge James J. It is sold by the names of Galaxy, Diamond, Rush, and Matrix. This is marketed as synthetic marijuana, some call it K2. It affects teenagers in public housing, homeless in the city shelter system, and it’s quite literally flooding our streets. NYPD Commissioner William Bratton said: “This is a scourge on our society, affecting the most disadvantaged neighborhoods and our most challenged citizens. Today’s collective action is just the start of that response, one that will not end until this poison in a packet no longer endangers our community.” Synthetic cannabinoids are a deadly serious problem that demands an equally serious response. What is more, use of these drugs aggravates all manner of other societal ills: it is entering prisons preying on the homeless burdening our hospitals and emergency rooms fueling addiction exacerbating mental health problems and increasing risks to cops who must deal with people high on this poison. Despite sometimes being called synthetic marijuana, this is not marijuana – it can have unpredictably severe and even lethal effects. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “Today, we launch an aggressive assault on a public health crisis that is reaching epidemic proportions: the scourge of dangerous new drugs that are killing people and sending thousands upon thousands to emergency rooms in New York City and around the country. MOHAMED ALMATHEEL, HAMID MOSHREF, ABDULLAH DEIBAN, AND FARIS NASSER KASSIM have not yet been arrested. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn later this afternoon. Those defendants will be presented in Manhattan federal court before U.S. Six of the defendants were arrested last night in connection with today’s charges. Coordinated with the unsealing of these criminal charges were searches of five processing facilities and warehouses used to process, store, and distribute SSC, as well as inspections of over 80 stores and bodegas around New York City. The scheme, which operated in all five boroughs of New York City, allegedly involved the unlawful importation of at least 100 kilograms of illegal synthetic compounds, an amount sufficient to produce approximately 1,300 kilograms of dried SSC product, or approximately 260,000 SSC retail packets. Perez, Director of the New York Field Office of Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) and Joseph Fucito, Sheriff of the City of New York, announced today the unsealing of an Indictment against ten defendants involved in a massive drug distribution ring involving smokable synthetic cannabinoids (“SSC”). Hunt, Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) Glenn Sorge, Acting Special Agent in Charge Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”) New York Robert E. Bratton, Commissioner of the New York Police Department (“NYPD”) James J. That takes two weeks after the second dose, so if kids start now, they’ll be protected by Christmas, but they will be at least partially protected right away, so go get that shot.Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York William J.
It is true that it’s too late for kids to be fully vaccine protected by Thanksgiving. There is MIS-C, which is the inflammatory condition after COVID,” Diamond said. There’s myocarditis, which is very common with COVID in children, much more common than with the vaccine. There’s long COVID, which is affecting large numbers of children. They are in the hospital for a long time. The reluctance may be due to the misconception that kids either don’t get or get a very mild case of COVID. Still, about 3 in 10 parents say they will definitely not get the vaccine for their 5- to 11-year-old, about the same proportion as parents who say they will immunize their child right away.
Those loosened restrictions will drive infections at schools, at home and other gatherings.