Deadly rat poison from synthetic marijuana found in US blood banks, FDA warns 

Synthetic marijuana that can cause fatal bleeding has been found in several samples donated plasma, the Food and Drug Administration warned on Thursday. 

Popular illegal cannabinoids – known by names like ‘K2’ and ‘Spice’ – have been linked to hundreds of cases of severe bleeding and several deaths in the US in the last year.

The danger does not stop with the users. The drug has a very long half-life and can remain in blood after a person donates, leaving an already weakened recipient with a transfusion of blood that won’t clot. 

Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a similar warning to blood banks, but it is up to the discretion of each donation center to decide if and how to screen its donors. 

However, the new warnings come amid the emergency shortages across the US, declared by the Red Cross as well as states like New York, Illinois and Colorado. 

Synthetic marijuana contaminated with a rat poison that stops blood from clotting has been found in several samples of donated plasma, the FDA warned Thursday 

Synthetic marijuana has gained popularity as a recreational way to get ‘high’ in recent years. The drug is illegal and unregulated and its contents vary widely from distributor to distributor. 

One of the ingredients detected in a number of samples – though the FDA stopped short of specifying just how many – is a rat poison called brodifacoum. 

The substance has a long half-life, and the FDA said in its statement it has ‘heard’ that synthetic marijuana makers use brodifacoum to prolong the ‘high’ or euphoric feeling the drug is supposed to induce. 

But it isn’t only the high that lasts longer. Brodifacoum prevents blood from clotting for weeks or even months. 

With or without the rat poison, synthetic marijuana uses chemicals that mimic cannabis by binding to the same receptors in the brain. 

Often, they are many times more powerful than the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana (THC) itself is. 

This can lead to host of worrisome and even dangerous symptoms: nausea and vomiting, chest pain, rapid heart beats, high blood pressure, black outs, suicidal thoughts and violent or psychotic behaviors. 

Its effects on blood pressure interfere with the flow to the heart, can damage the kidneys and cause seizures, the FDA warns. 

It has also been linked to outbreaks of horrifying eye-bleeding in several states, including Illinois.  

Just yesterday, officials in Washington, DC, announced that they are investigating four recent deaths they suspect are linked to a bad batch of K2. The substance has also caused some 140 illnesses in the US, predominantly in the Midwest. 

The FDA, and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) have been staging a crack down on the drugs, but they are still cropping up on the shelves of convenience stores and smoke shops.

‘Despite our efforts, certain entities continue to bypass state and federal drug laws by making and distributing these products – often marked or labeled as “not for human consumption” – and changing the structure of the synthetic chemicals to try to skirt legal requirements,’ the FDA said in its statement. 

Furthermore, ‘the presence of brodifacoum in these illegal compounds poses a significant public health hazard,’ the FDA said, and the agency has already heard several reports of ‘blood product’ donors who had used synthetic marijuana. 

In its previous memo to blood banks, the FDA said that it had only detected contamination in Source Plasma donations, rather than in samples of whole blood intended for transfusion. 

But the agency wants to send a stern warning that blood banks should not accept donations from people who have or may have used synthetic marijuana, in case it contained brodifacoum. 

Because the rat poison stops the body from reusing vitamin K, these patients would need aggressive, fairly long-term supplemental treatments to replace the coagulating vitamin. 

The FDA’s general blood donor eligibility requirements state that a donor has to be ‘in good health and free of transfusion-transmitted infections.’ 

Blood bank physicians have discretion to determine what exactly typically through questions asked to potential donors. 

So far, the FDA has not introduced additional screening requirements, but promised in its statement that it will ‘continue issue and take additional steps as appropriate along with our federal partners at the CDC and DEA, state and local health departments, and blood establishments.’  



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