New York

Bad Batch of K2 Likely Linked to More Than 100 DC Overdoses: DC Fire Chief

"Since July 14th we've had over 100 people that we've transported"

Fire and rescue crews have responded to more than 100 overdoses in D.C. in just a span of four days and the spike is likely linked to a "bad batch" of synthetic marijuana, the city's fire chief says.

"Since July 14th we've had over 100 people that we've transported," D.C. Fire & EMS Chief Gregory Dean said Wednesday.

Dean said the cases are connected to K2 or Spice, brand names for synthetic marijuana. The drugs are illegal in D.C.

But on Thursday, the city's chief medical examiner said material tested Wednesday is a synthetic drug completely new to the streets of D.C.

"This doesn't act like marijuana. It acts like something totally different," Chief Medical Examiner Roger A. Mitchell Jr. said. "We call it cannabinoids because it is something totally different."

Mitchell said officials are still trying to confirm the drug is connected to the recent overdoses.

"This is extremely dangerous and I think the community needs to understand that what's now out on the street, we don't know really what it is yet. And we are finding now new compounds that D.C. has never seen before. So, the message is stay away from this stuff."

More than a dozen people overdosed on Wednesday, the fire department said. 

Firefighters responded to a call for three overdoses in the 400 block of Rhode Island Avenue NE and were later called back to that area for three more.

At 4th and E Streets NW medics helped 11 patients and and four of them were taken to a hospital, the fire department said.

"As we walk around, we continue to find more patients," Dean said at the scene of those overdoses.

He said the problem has touched areas across the city.

"We were over at Union Station in Northeast, we've been to the shelter on 4th, we've been here at 441, we've been in NoMa, we've been down in Benning Road, we've been up on New York [Avenue] -- so we're seeing pockets throughout the District," he said.

Dean said the current amount of calls is on par with what the department saw in July 2016, when it took 597 overdose patients to area hospitals. The number of cases had dropped by July 2017, when the fire department responded to a total of 105 overdoses.

In 2015, Mayor Muriel Bowser signed the "Sale of Synthetic Drugs Emergency Amendment Act of 2015" to allow the government and police to take stronger action against businesses caught selling synthetic drugs. Police said at the time the drugs were linked to a string of violent crimes.

Police, fire, the Department of Behavioral Health and the Department of Health and Human Services are working together to address the current problem, Dean said.

"If you see people that are falling down, collapsing, unconscious, vomiting, call 911. Allow us to come and assist them," Dean said. 

Stay with News4 and NBCWashington.com for updates to this developing story.

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