There has been an explosion of problems related to synthetic cannabis use in the city, according to two health workers at Wanganui Hospital.
Mental health nurse Tim Puts and drug clinician Karen Kjestrup said since last October there had been a sharp increase in people presenting with issues relating to synthetic cannabis use, whether it was from heavy use or withdrawal.
Mr Puts said he had recently been seeing a couple of people a week suffering from synthetic cannabis effects - and that number was growing.
"It used to be very clear - people had either taken drugs like cannabis or P, or they hadn't. But people don't see these things as drugs, because they're legal."
Miss Kjestrup said synthetic cannabis had been around for about 10 years.
"But we're seeing a much more potent batch of drugs recently. The problem is that these things don't have ingredients lists on the packets, and people don't really know what they're taking."
She said the marketing of synthetic cannabis was very clever, using colourful and attractive packaging as well as cute names.
"There's one that smells like chocolate and one that smells like mango. Why would anyone think it could be dangerous?"
Miss Kjestrup said the active ingredient in a popular synthetic cannabis product, K2, was five times stronger than the active ingredient in cannabis, THC.
"Then they add herbs to it which can magnify the strength of the drug even further."
She said synthetic cannabis use could cause a range of effects, both physical and psychological. These included psychosis, paranoia, aggression, irritability, panic attacks, anxiety, long-term mental illness, heart attacks and kidney failure.
Mr Puts said what made synthetic cannabis different from natural cannabis was the aggression and irritability often seen in users. "People who have taken cannabis are not usually aggressive, but that's what we're seeing with synthetic cannabis."
While cannabis was only psychologically addictive, the synthetic version was very physically addictive, he said.
"We're seeing people presenting with all the classic symptoms of drug withdrawal - cravings, sweating, racing pulse, agitation and so on."
Mr Puts said regular users developed a tolerance to it, going from one packet a week to quickly needing two or three packets a day for the same high.
Miss Kjestrup said it was unfortunate that some long-term can-nabis users were now turning to synthetics because they thought they were better for them, and because they didn't show up in workplace drug testing.
Mr Puts and Miss Kjestrup said they would like to see greater control of synthetic drugs. "We support the Government's bill that says these things should be banned unless they've been tested and proven to be safe," she said.
Athol Steward, the head of Wanganui Hospital's emergency department, said his staff had not seen patients suffering from the effects of synthetic cannabis. "But we have had one case of profound withdrawal from synthetic cannabis, in which the patient was experiencing mental agitation, sweating, and a fast pulse," Dr Steward said.
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