On Monday, May 22, we had eight code blues at our downtown clinic. The week before, we had a single day with six code blues. All of these took place on the front porch, and all of them stemmed from K2 usage, also known as synthetic marijuana and Spice.

K2 is extremely dangerous, and can cause severe illness, and even death. Please download and use this flyer with clients, to help educate them about K2—what it is, and the risks of using it.

And because these K2 spikes are episodic, they are very hard to respond to—and they take a huge toll on staff. At one point this past Monday, we had three code blue teams operating concurrently. That said, here are some steps we’re taking at the downtown clinic:

• We’re upping our efforts to keep the porch clear during clinic hours
• We’re exploring a no-smoking perimeter for our building
• We’re distributing info on K2 to staff and clients
• We’re partnering with police to identify who is dealing K2 to our clients
• We’re working with our Hot Cop partners
• We’re exploring limiting our code responses to our building and the sidewalk immediately surrounding our building

If you have any questions, please email Adrienne Trustman, Vice President of Medicine.