(Clarence Williams/The Washington Post)District officials are examining five deaths Wednesday and Thursday to determine whether they were linked to a spike in overdoses believed to be caused by synthetic-marijuana use. The deaths occurred between Wednesday night and Thursday as city medics responded to 88 calls for suspected overdoses. The spike of overdoses has prompted city officials to again launch a public awareness campaign aimed at persuading users to avoid smoking the cheap drug. City officials tweeted an alert that said “a ‘bad batch’ of K2, a.k.a. In July, the use of synthetic marijuana caused similar concerns in the city after a surge in overdoses.

Source: Washington Post September 14, 2018 23:20 UTC