Abstract
Synthetic cannabinoids have been popular recreational drugs of abuse for their psychoactive
properties. Five of the many synthetic cannabinoids have been recently banned in the
United States because of their unknown and potentially harmful adverse effects. Little
is known about these substances. They are thought to have natural cannabinoid-like
effects but have different chemical structures. Adverse effects related to synthetic
cannabinoids are not well known. We provide clinical effects and patient outcome following
K9 use. In addition, we briefly review synthetic cannabinoids. We present a 17-year-old
adolescent boy with chest pain, tachycardia, and then bradycardia associated with
smoking K9. Two synthetic cannabinoids, JWH-018 and JWH-073, were confirmed on laboratory
analysis. In addition to the limited current data, we demonstrate harmful adverse
effects related to toxicity of 2 synthetic cannabinoids. Further studies are needed.
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: August 01, 2011
Accepted:
May 11,
2011
Received:
May 7,
2011
Footnotes
☆No sources of support.
☆☆This article has not been presented.
Identification
Copyright
Published by Elsevier Inc.
