Fake Weed, Real Consequences: Synthetic Cannabinoids Associated with Internal Bleeding

​Synthetic cannabinoids may have sent as many as 94 people to the emergency department with unexplained bleeding over the past month, alerted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on April 5, 2018. Two of the patients died. All but five of the cases, including both deaths, were in Illinois. The others were in Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, and Wisconsin. None of the patients were on anticoagulation therapy or reported having any exposure to rat poisons containing the anticoagulant brodifacoum. Despite this, laboratory analysis confirmed brodifacoum exposure in at least 18 of the patients.