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25 people in New York City hospitalized for synthetic marijuana overdoses

Police in New York responded to reports that 25 people experienced a negative reaction to K2, a synthetic marijuana.

NEW YORK — Twenty-five people in New York City were hospitalized Saturday night after apparently having a negative reaction to synthetic marijuana, WABC reported.

Lt. Paul Ng of the New York Police Department said that the drug, known as K2, was taken by people in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. They were taken to the hospital after reports of being unresponsive, WABC reported.

Officials said the patients are expected to survive.

Police said all 25 people had connections to a deli in the neighborhood. Investigators are trying to determine how the deli is involved, WABC reported.

A similar incident in the same Brooklyn neighborhood in 2016 affected 33 people, the New York Daily News reported. In that incident, police filed nuisance abatement actions against two businesses, Big Boy Deli at 930 Broadway and a smoke shop next door.

"We call them 'The Walking Dead,'" Israel P., 23, who works at his family's Mexican restaurant nearby, told the Daily News. He said he saw three people taken away in ambulances.