Kronic users abusing medical staff, say doctors

Young people are most at risk because their brains are more susceptible to damage. Photo / APN

More high-level doctors have joined a chorus of clinicians calling for Kronic to be taken off store shelves, saying hospital staff are being abused and threatened by patients stoned on legal highs.

The clinical head of one district health board said Kronic could leave some young users with permanent psychological damage.

Dr Sue Mackersey, mental health clinical director at Bay of Plenty District Health Board, cited two cases of patients suffering psychotic episodes from Kronic in the past week alone.

"We've most definitely had patients who have been admitted acutely after using Kronic, which has led to a relapse - we have no doubt it's a huge problem," she told the Herald.

"We had another young man recently who was admitted acutely, behaved very aggressively and was threatening a community worker. We know he was using Kronic prior to that episode."

Young people were most at risk from using Kronic, as their brains were more susceptible to damage, she said.

Her colleagues across the DHB were concerned about Kronic, which had impacted on all mental health services except for the older people's unit.

"A main concern has been that some of their aggressive, belligerent, challenging behaviour has become worse and meant that they've needed to come back into hospital, when they've previously been quite settled in the community.

"I'm not sure why it has got worse. I wasn't aware of Kronic being an issue last year. I don't know if it's just been because of extra publicity, if people have been obtaining or using it more, or whether the mixture that's in Kronic has changed - but it's only happened in the last few months.

"I do think it's likely to get worse without some form of regulation."

Dr John Bonning, national chairman of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, slammed Kronic as "poison". "I don't think you'll find a single person who works in an emergency department who supports such widespread use of these substances," said Dr Bonning, clinical director at Waikato Hospital's emergency department.

Some patients suffering psychosis as a side-effect of smoking Kronic had needed to be restrained by hospital staff and given intravenous sedatives, he said.

"I sometimes need to hold patients down in order to get the drips into them to sedate them, and often I'll give them anti-psychotic medication as well.

"I can remember a couple of patients on one shift who had taken the stuff and were very aggressive and angry, to the point where I suggested they just leave the department if they weren't willing to co-operate with my treatment and assessment."

Last month, the Herald reported how Auckland City Hospital's emergency department often had one or two such patients each day.

National Poisons Centre toxicologist Leo Schep said users of synthetic cannabis were being treated at many emergency departments, including in Dunedin, where the centre is based.

The centre itself was receiving about 10 calls a month about synthetic cannabis.

Last week, the synthetic cannabis industry announced it would be cleaning up its act by making changes such as chemically testing all imported products to ensure there was no contamination - a move criticised by some health experts as too little, too late.

The Institute of Environmental Science and Research has, meanwhile, completed a snapshot survey of just over 40 synthetic cannabis products and passed on results to the Ministry of Health, with details expected to be made public next week.

A spokesman for Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne said last week that tighter controls on legal highs would be revealed in the next few weeks when amendments to the Misuse of Drugs Act went before Parliament.