A group shares the impact synthetic marijuana has on South Bend

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – A group of South Bend leaders hosted a discussion on the impact synthetic marijuana impacts the city, on Thursday.

Beacon Health System provided statistics on the drug at the meeting that was held at the Charles Martin Youth Center.

According to Beacon, in 2016 there were close to 60,000 ER visits at Memorial Hospital. Of those 60,000 roughly 1,000 were patients suffering from synthetic marijuana complications.

South Bend Police Chief expressed to the crowd his frustrations with this issue.

“Dealing with this as a police officer, I'll just tell you it's one of the hardest things to deal with because it's preventable. It’s not just the hypothetical gas station selling it, this is simple supply and demand, what are we doing to interrupt both?” said Chief Scott Ruszkowski.

South Bend has a citywide ordinance that was established in the summer of 2017, that bans the sale of the synthetic drug at any retail store or person-to-person.