# 153

Florida Prisons losing prisoners to K2 related deaths.  500 deaths projected for 2018.

Miami Herald reports that Florida's Prison system saw 62 deaths from drug overdoses in 2017 and reports that the State is on course for 500 such deaths in 2018.

"The past two years have each been the deadliest in Florida prison history, consecutively. And 2018 figures to be worse yet. Total deaths this year are on track to exceed 500 for the first time, a previously unthinkable threshold. And every year, more younger people are dying. The spike in mortality is paralleled by a dramatic rise in “accidental deaths,” up from 12 in 2016 to 62 in 2017. Those are mostly drug overdoses, according to the department.

The top killer, according to an internal FDC audit: synthetic marijuana, more commonly called K2 or Spice. It’s the same drug that just made national headlines when 70 people overdosed in 24 hours in New Haven, Conn., home of Yale University."

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/special-reports/florida-prisons/article215642855.html#storylink=cpy

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/special-reports/florida-prisons/article215642855.html