Teen hospitalized after using 'Zombie Matter'

EPHRATA - An Ephrata teenager was sent to the hospital Sunday night when he reportedly harmed himself after inhaling an unregulated incense product.

Ephrata police responded to a report of a bleeding male locked inside a garage on D Street Northwest, according to a police report.

The reporting party told police he and other teens had smoked "Zombie Matter," a brand of incense the company's website describes as "a mixture of organic and synthetic compounds" that "comply with current DEA, local, state and national regulations."

When one male began acting violently everyone else exited the garage. One person returned to check on him and found a "large amount of blood," the report stated.

The man was transported to Columbia Basin Hospital for multiple lacerations.

The teenagers, who ranged in age from 18 to 19, told police they had purchased the incense at a smoke shop on the west side of the state, according to Ephrata police Sgt. Glen Maryott.

Names are not being released because no crime was committed.

Ephrata police received awareness training on so-called "synthetic cannabinoid" products such as Zombie Matter, although this is the first incident involving the product within the city, Maryott said.

"Over the past couple of years, 'herbal incense' products marketed in the U.S. as being 'legal' and providing a marijuana-like high when smoked have become increasingly popular, particularly among teens and young adults," stated a report issued by the U.S. Department of Justice in April.

The synthetic cannabinoids mimic marijuana's active ingredient, THC, and bind to similar receptors in the brain. Since the industry is thus far unregulated it's difficult to know exactly what ingredients the products contain, and teens can legally purchase them online or in many smoke shops and gas stations.

Since 2009, the DEA has received an increasing number of reports from poison control centers, hospitals and law enforcement agencies concerning products containing synthetic cannabinoids, the report stated.

Emergency room physicians report users experience side effects including convulsions, anxiety attacks, dangerously elevated heart rates, increased blood pressure, vomiting, and disorientation. People on the drugs have reportedly experienced severe psychotic episodes leading to violent outbursts and self-inflicted wounds.

Last year the American Association of Poison Control Centers reported 112 calls to U.S. poison control centers from 15 different states related to synthetic cannabinoids in the past year. Nine months later the number increased to more than 2,700 calls from 49 different states and the District of Columbia.

"Under no circumstances should Zombie Matter product/potpourri be ingested, consumed or smoked," the company website states. "Our products are offered as potpourri, aromatherapy and novelty scents only."