Last week during a press briefing at NYPD headquarters, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton warned reporters about the dangers of synthetic weed—showing two disturbing videos to illustrate its effects and referring to it as “weaponized marijuana.”
“These individuals, many of them under the influence of this drug, are totally crazy,” Bratton said, before presenting the troubling clips.
In one video, a naked man is seen tearing through a fence with his bare hands—but he’s not a New Yorker high on synthetic pot.
According to Gothamist, the man had reportedly taken PCP before the footage was shot. In Des Moines, Iowa. In 2002. And it aired 12 years ago on the reality TV show COPS.
After uncovering this information, an NYPD spokesperson told Gothamist that the video “was only shown to depict the type of behavior sometimes associated with ‘excited delirium syndrome,’ and that it was never, ever said that it was K2 that the people were on.”
However, Raw Story reports that the videos were emailed to local news outlets with “K2” used as both the file name and subject line.
Often called K2 or Spice, synthetic pot has indeed caused a recent spike in emergency room visits and, in turn, an increased amount of media coverage. To be clear, synthetic marijuana does not contain actual pot, and the association of this new designer drug with our favorite natural herb has many marijuana activists outraged.
