By Cynthia Grau/WJEZ News

The news lately has talked about people falling ill and even dying from synthetic cannabis, and this trend is hitting too close to home.

Teresa Diemer, substance abuse director and counselor at IHR, explains what this substance is and where people are coming across it.

“This marijuana is a synthetic marijuana. It’s not naturally grown. There are chemicals that we don’t always know what’s in each batch of this marijuana. A lot of people are finding int in the streets, online, and sometimes it’s still being sold in stores, though they’re not supposed to. It’s completely illegal, but some places you’ll find it behind the counter. Another way you would hear it called is spice, K2, synthetic weed and also I believe it’s a Class 4 felony even if it’s a lookalike substance, because they’re constantly changing the chemical makeup of this substance,” Diemer said.

Diemer said they’ve seen plenty of patients at IHR who have tried the substance and she says roughly 98 percent of those who do try it, fall ill in one way or another.

“What we’ve seen out at IHR and what clients have reported to us is sometimes immediately after use is they’ll be very violently sick, racing heart, high blood pressure, I’ve had people lose their eyesight for a time, I’ve had people have seizures and we also believe some people have had strokes. If you’ve seen the public health announcements, there’s a current batch out there where there are 56 cases of bleeding (internally and externally) and there have actually been several deaths as close as Peoria and Bloomington,” Diemer said.

Diemer said if you know of someone who has used synthetic cannabis and is having a reaction, go to the emergency room immediately or call Poison Control at 800-222-1222. For more information, contact IHR at 844-6109.