I entered my cell and found my cellmate babbling, a spaced-out look in his eyes. The pungent scent of burnt paper was overwhelming. My eyes watered. I monitored his high for about 30 minutes to make sure he did not die of an overdose or attack me because he was too intoxicated to know what was happening.

Unfortunately, this is an all-too-common occurrence in New Jersey prisons. It stems from a type of synthetic cannabinoid known as K2.

K2 usage has become what one state prison official called “a serious problem.” In recent months, we have received multiple memos outlining this fact from the state prison commissioner’s office, which has urged prisoners not to smoke K2, and to report people to medical personnel or guards if they appear to need help. Never in my 27 years incarcerated have I seen a substance as unregulated, widely used and dangerous as K2.

No comprehensive database tracks K2 deaths in prison, but conservative estimates suggest the drug is fueling dozens of fatal overdoses across the country each year. According to the Texas Observer, K2 deaths in the Lone Star State rose from 16 in 2023 to 65 in 2024. From 2016 to 2017, Florida prisons attributed a large share of its 62 “accidental deaths” to K2 overdoses, as highlighted in the Miami Herald. And reporting from The Marshall Project found that K2 overdose deaths in Ohio rose from three in 2023 to 13 in 2024. 

The K2 crisis in prisons has made me realize it is not realistic to eradicate all illegal drug usage behind bars. Instead, we should find strategies for safe and responsible harm reduction, including allowing the use of organic marijuana.

A legal alternative

Marijuana is legal in New Jersey, and dispensaries across the state operate in a highly regulated environment. Additionally, a multitude of county jails and prisons throughout the United States offer alternatives with a similar philosophy — like “vape pens” sold at commissaries as an alternative for smokers, or Suboxone as an alternative treatment to opioids. In other countries, such as Germany, Switzerland and Spain, prisons have offered safe needle exchange programs as a way to stop the spread of disease (and the use of drugs has not increased with the implementation of those programs).

A 2022 study, led by researchers at Washington State University, hints at the possible benefits of allowing marijuana use inside prisons. It found a 37% drop in “poisoning reports for illicit synthetic cannabinoids” — that is, K2 — in states that had legalized marijuana use. As the study reported, when people have a safer option, severe medical complications can be avoided.

While this is not a long-term solution to stemming drug use, states have used medical marijuna as a form of harm reduction to taper people off of opioids and ease the comedown off stimulants like methamphetamine.

In the case of prisons, edible marijuana products would not violate federal anti-smoking laws nor jeopardize air quality. Right now, guards and prisoners must put up with the strong smoke and odor from K2, which people consume every day. The scent — like the smell of trash from a nearby landfill — lingers in our living quarters.

A dangerous addiction

A man who goes by Fastlane said it’s hard to end a K2 addiction. As soon as he’s done smoking, his body demands more.

“It got my head messed up, and I can always get my hands on it,” Fastlane said. “If there was something else that wouldn’t hurt me as much, I’d use that. But there isn’t.”

K2 is arguably the most popular drug inside prison because it’s much easier to smuggle inside. Unlike organic marijuana, the synthetic drug can be sprayed or laced onto paper to evade detection systems. Once it’s inside, K2 is more cost-effective and easier to keep hidden, because a small amount can be quite potent. And since the chemicals that make up the drug are constantly shifting, there’s no easy way to test people for it like there is with other drugs.

Users aren’t the only ones at risk. Fastlane once nearly killed himself and his cellmate in a fire started from smoking K2. With edibles, there’s no risk of fire use. 

A man who goes by Mizzle, who used to struggle with substance abuse, said that edibles could help him stay away from harder drugs.

“I was a pretty heavy drug user with some serious drugs,” he said. “I have to fight every day with every fiber of my being to not do drugs like K2, because it’s everywhere. If I could have some weed brownies here and there, that would help me move forward and not have the urge to use harder drugs.”

Regulation would be needed

Of course, there are valid reasons to not allow edibles inside prisons. It could compromise safety if many people are frequently and strongly sedated inside the prison. And harm reduction approaches like this do not address the root causes of addiction as deeply as robust substance use and mental health treatment. 

Prisoners could also abuse edibles and end up in “green-outs” — mental states characterized by severe paranoia, rapid heart rate, hallucinatory episodes and extreme anxiety — which would be hard for regular prison staff to manage and unsafe for everyone else, too.

But these safety and use management issues already exist with K2. And prisons do not offer sufficient substance use and mental health treatment options as it is. There would need to be regulations around how much someone could have at one time and when someone could use the drug. 

It’s not a perfect system, but having edibles available as an alternative to a much more dangerous drug is better than doing nothing.

What prison staff think

I have had conversations with staff about this potential solution. No one was willing to go on the record for fear of losing their job, but the various perspectives were interesting. More than half of the nine staff members I spoke to — of varying ranks and positions — were generally in favor of it, if for different reasons.  

One did not want to see people in prison suffer. A couple of officers mused it would lessen their workload by curtailing overdoses and violent reactions. All of them would be happy to not have to smell the burnt paper odor. Others were more indifferent, calling edibles the “lesser of two evils.”

There are staff who are unequivocally against it, though. Some are skeptical the needed regulation would be adequately applied. Others don’t condone drugs of any type at any level. And still others merely see prison as punitive — there should be no escape.

But something must be done. Every other policy the department of corrections has enacted — like restricting mail, visitation and packages — has already proven to be ineffective. K2 is still abundant and remains a deadly threat. It is time to start thinking radically to save people’s lives.