Pretoria ‘herbal blend’ drug much more than natural cannabis – expert

Synthetic compounds found in the “herbal blend” drug were far more dangerous than normal marijuana, a medical doctor has said, Rekord North reports.

The so-called “herbal blend” drug scare has seen several Pretoria learners suffer from seizures and having to be hospitalised recently.

Two weeks ago, about 14 people in Pretoria received medical treatment for smoking the drug.

“Synthetic cannabinoids are far more potent and dangerous than natural cannabis,” said Dr Louise Engelbrecht, an emergency physician at Eugene Marais and Die Wilgers hospitals.

Engelbrecht said the side effects of “herbal blend” were different from those of natural cannabis.

“Due to its potency, it causes life-threatening complications such as toxic hallucinations, delirium, convulsions, brain haemorrhaging and comas.”

Other side effects included complications such as arrhythmias and cardiac arrest.

Respiratory complications such as asthma attacks and respiratory arrest, muscle breakdown due to agitation and convulsions and acute kidney failure were also side effects.

“The long-term effects of the drug, however, depended on how long users take before seeking medical help.

“It is potentially deadly,” she said.

“The difficulty with these drugs is that none of our available quick diagnostic tests can identify them. It does not test positive on the tests kits as with natural cannabis.”

Engelbrecht said another problem was that some users tested negative in drug screenings even though they were displaying clear symptoms such as hallucinating and being in a zombie-like delirium.

“After about six hours they recover and then leave without us knowing what the clear cause was.”

Last week an analysis by specialist crime investigator Mike Bolhuis showed that synthetic cannabinoids and/or drugs could be made up of more than 250 compounds.

“This can vary from one brand to the other or even one batch of the same brand to the next,” said Bolhuis.

Their pharmacology was not well studied, so risks of overdose and toxicity were “high”.

“There have been hospitalisations and deaths noted to be related to 5-fluoro-ADB in Japan and other countries,” he said.

In a video that went viral on social media, a boy who allegedly smoked “herbal blend” was seen choking on his own vomit while another boy tried helping him, but ended up vomiting as well.

In another video, a 14-year-old boy was seen lying on the ground while receiving medical treatment from paramedics during an apparent seizure.

The boy has since apologised on social media for using the drug.