Officials Say Synthetic Marijuana Overdoses Increasing

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Officials say Baton Rouge-area hospitals have treated at least 100 people in the past two weeks suffering from apparent synthetic marijuana overdoses.

The Advocate reports the spike in overdoses, none fatal, prompted the state's Department of Health and Hospitals secretary to sign an "emergency rule" banning eight new types of synthetic marijuana, many of which law enforcement officials say they have seen recently in Baton Rouge and surrounding areas.

It wasn't clear how many synthetic marijuana overdoses the area hospitals normally see in a two-week span.

Synthetic marijuana usually consists of various herbs sprayed with synthetic compounds aimed at mimicking the effects of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.