GBI identifies dangerous synthetic pot known as ‘Crazy Clown'

ATLANTA — Channel 2 Action News has learned the tests are in on a powerful synthetic drug in Georgia. GBI chemists had to do significant detective work just to identify it.

Channel 2’s Linda Stouffer found out it's so dangerous officials are warning other labs across the country what to look for.

The powerful synthetic pot, known as “Crazy Clown” sent two dozen people to the hospital in south Georgia. The drug that caused symptoms from vomiting to paralysis remained a mystery until GBI chemists in DeKalb County analyzed the toxic ingredients

“We had contacted crime labs all over the country including the DEA and no one was familiar with this substance, clearly a brand new compound,” said GBI Crime Lab Chemistry Section Manager Nelly Miles.

Miles said her team had to innovative work to identify that what was stuffed in the packages, was a new and poisonous synthetic pot, but similar to other products sold as herbal incense.

“Calling it the fourth generation of synthetic cannabinoid -- we're finding more potent so the effects, nausea, vomiting, cardiac arrest, being put on life support, much stronger than previous generation,” Miles said.

State drug official warns other labels could be connected too. The lead investigator in Brunswick, Ga., said they are testing other packages found with victims.

Investigators are still trying to determine where the compound was created and packaged.

“We have a new compound we'd never seen before, however, once we'd identified it -- it’s still outlawed,” Miles said.

The GBI is able to declare what they found it crazy clown a controlled substance right away because the drug chemical "backbones" are covered under Chase’s Law, in memory of local teenager Chase Burnett.

WSBTV