Synthetic marijuana products that contain brodifacoum have caused dozens of cases of severe bleeding in Illinois.
Brodifacoum is an odorless, off-white powder that was used to eliminate rats that had become resistant to existing rat poisons in the 1970’s.
It has caused 60 hospitalizations and two deaths since early March.
Lynn Sutfin is a spokesperson for the department of health and human services.
“Although we have not had any cases reported here in Michigan we do want people to be aware of this, obviously Illinois is a neighboring state so it easily could end up in Michigan so we want people to be aware of these symptoms and if they experience them to immediately call 911 or have somebody get them to the emergency room.”
Sutfin said so far the only known symptom is severe bleeding - both internal and from the nose. Brodifacoum poisoning can be treated at the hospital with doses of vitamin K.