HEALTH ALERT Adverse Health Effects after Synthetic Marijuana Use in Colorado Friday, August 30, 2013 ****Health care providers: Please distribute widely in your office/department**** KEY POINTS: • In the past week, several Colorado hospitals, especially in the Denver metropolitan area, have reported an increase in patients presenting to emergency departments with mental status change after using synthetic marijuana products. Symptoms in some affected patients have been severe, resulting in hospitalization and some ICU admissions. • The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and Denver metropolitan public health agencies are attempting to better understand the scope of the problem and the public health risk. • Any emergency department in Colorado that sees a patient with altered mental status after using a synthetic marijuana product is asked to fill out a form in EMResource. EMResource can be accessed by emergency department staff and/or the hospital emergency manager. • CDPHE will be checking EMResource throughout the weekend to monitor the situation and may be in contact with individual hospitals to gather additional information. • For specific information on synthetic marijuana health effects, please contact Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center at 1-800-222-1222, or visit this web page for a fact sheet: aapcc.org/alerts/synthetic-marijuana/ • For general public health response information, please contact CDPHE at 303-692-2700 (afterhours 303-370-9395.
Posted on: Fri, 06 Sep 2013 14:12:21 +0000
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