New York City ended 2024 with a series of horrific subway incidents linked by a hidden thread: the state’s choice to legalize marijuana.
Just days before Christmas, Debrina Kawam, a troubled New Jersey woman, was set on fire on an F train and burned to death, allegedly by Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala.
Zapeta-Calil was deported from the United States in 2018 but returned and was living in a Brooklyn homeless shelter. According to a shelter roommate, Zapeta-Calil was generally a normal, pleasant person who spoke with “good manners and respect” — unless he was drunk or high on K2, a synthetic cannabinoid.
He was said to have a habit of chain-smoking K2, spending $30 daily on the illegal drug.
K2 became a scourge in New York City about a decade ago. This unregulated substance — composed of plant material sprayed with hallucinogenic chemicals — was associated with erratic, sometimes violent behavior, in some cases reducing users to a “zombie-like” state. A notorious 2018 incident saw 56 people hospitalized after smoking a bad batch.
New York cracked down on K2 by making the production of synthetic cannabinoids illegal in 2012 and banning their sale entirely in 2015. The city’s health department launched an ad campaign warning users: “K2: 0% Marijuana; 100% Dangerous.”
Continue reading the entire piece here at the New York Post
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Seth Barron is managing editor of The American Mind. Adapted from City Journal.
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