New York is moving to expand a ban on synthetic marijuana to keep with drug makers who create new chemical recipes to evade the existing law. Governor Andrew Cuomo told the state's health department on Friday to broaden the regulations to outlaw new formulas.
While the drugs are created to mimic the effects of marijuana, their chemical makeup is quite different, and chemists have found ways to get around a 2012 ban by modifying their creations.
Cuomo's office says that in April, May and June there were more than 1,900 emergency room visits and more than 680 poison control center calls for bad reactions to synthetic marijuana in New York. That's more than ten times the number of ER visits and calls over the same period last year.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press.
