title: Cardiotoxicity associated with the synthetic cannabinoid, K9, with laboratory confirmation.
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.
authors.affiliation: Division of Emergency Medicine, Department of Surgery, University of Texas Southwestern, Dallas, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Amy C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Young
authors.forename: Evan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Schwarz
authors.forename: Genevieve
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Medina
authors.forename: Adebisi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Obafemi
authors.forename: Sing-Yi
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Colin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kane
authors.forename: Kurt
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kleinschmidt
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001919:Bradycardia / Q000139:chemically induced*; D002186:Cannabinoids / Q000633:toxicity*; D002637:Chest Pain / Q000139:chemically induced*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D006801:Humans; D013287:Illicit Drugs / Q000633:toxicity*; D008297:Male; D013610:Tachycardia / Q000139:chemically induced*
chemical_list: D002186:Cannabinoids; D013287:Illicit Drugs