Georgia outlawed the use and sale of synthetic marijuana a year ago but, like other illegal drugs, that has not stopped its availability in metro Atlanta.
Not only is “K2”, one of the drug’s street names, still found, its potentially violent side effects continue to baffle drug abuse experts.
Woodstock paint store manager Patrick Byrum, 33, told officers he smoked synthetic marijuana before he and a female employee at a Sherwin-Williams location got into a violent confrontation Monday evening.
Police said Byrum pulled a gun on the woman, who also admitted to smoking marijuana, and then attempted to carjack several passing vehicles.
"It took three officers to subdue this gentleman after he was tased multiple times," said Randy Milligan of the Woodstock Police Department told Channel 2 Action News.
Police spokeswoman Brittany Duncan said officers found marijuana at the paint store, although no synthetic pot was recovered.
“He [Byrum] stated he had been smoking synthetic marijuana and that he was hallucinating,” Duncan said. The spokeswoman said it was unclear whether Byrum was confused or if he had used K2 earlier in the day.
Byrum remained in the Cherokee County Jail on Tuesday, facing a long list of charges. Bond was set at $279,680.
Last year, Georgia joined a growing number of states outlawing synthetic marijuana, which is sold under the names K2, Spice, Genie and Fire ’n Ice.
The drug is made from a mixture of herbs and spice plants, such as the kind used for incenses, that are sprayed with a potent psychotropic drug and then smoked.
While users may be looking for a mellowed marijuana-like experience, the opposite can be the result.
Violent outbreaks, hallucinations, rapid heart rate, and even seizures are some of the side effects scientists are trying to understand as more of them study the affects of synthetic marijuana on users.
“You can actually get more violent affects verses the kind of the deluded effects that marijuana can provide,” said toxicologist Stephanie Hon, assistant director of the Georgia Poison Control.
While few arrests have been made because of difficulty law enforcement has testing for the drug, Georgia Poison Control has seen a big jump in the number of K2-related calls to its hot line -- 79 calls in 2010, compared with 217 so far this year. The majority of the cases, involving men, required hospitalization, Hon said.
While its sale is illegal, some smoke and “head shops” still may be selling it. Hon said a worried mother recently called the Georgia Poison Center because her two sons were “acting kind of weird” and told her they'd bought K2 from a “head shop.”
According to the Woodstock police report, officers got a call just before 7 p.m. Monday that a woman was locked inside a bathroom with a gun she had taken from a man at the Sherwin-Williams store on Main Street.
The woman, an employee identified as Emily Brown, 24, said she and Byrum, her manager, were smoking marijuana and talking about Byrum’s “perfect love for her” and their “deep connection” when he became angry during the conversation.
The conversation “turned into an argument over religion and Byrum began to uncontrollably punch and break things,” the police report said.
The more Brown tried to calm him, the more violent Byrum became, the woman told police. He broke a glass door in the rear of the business.
Brown said Byrum headed for his car, where she knew he had a gun. She said at one point she jumped on his back to prevent him from getting the gun, but he was still able to get the weapon out of his vehicle.
After they fell to the ground, Brown said Byrum began choking her so hard she almost blacked out. Bryum then picked the woman up and shoved her toward a warehouse when she was able to knock the gun out of his hand and grab it.
As Byrum walked toward the parking lot, Brown went back inside the store, locked herself inside a bathroom and called 911.
When officers first arrived, they found Bryum in the street, banging on the doors and windows of passing vehicles and trying to enter the vehicles. When officers approached, they said Byrum, who was covered in paint, charged them.
During the struggle, Bryum struck one of the officers in the face with his fist. Officers said they had to use a taser several times to control him.
One officer suffered a gash on his forehead and other bruises and another was taken to Wellstar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta for a severely sprained ankle.
After being restrained, Bryum kicked at officers, hurled racial epithets at one of them and fought attempts by medical technicians to check him for injuries, the police report said.
During a search of the store, officers found marijuana and other drug-related objects, the report said.
Charges filed against Byrum included aggravated assault, aggravated battery of a law enforcement officer, felony obstruction, carjacking, and possession of a firearm during a felony.
Police say Brown also will face charges of possession of marijuana and drug related objects.
-- Dispatch editor Angel K. Brooks contributed to this report.
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