US | Thu Aug 6, 2015 5:50pm EDT

New York police criticized for 'weaponized marijuana' videos

NEW YORK

The New York Police Department faced criticism on Thursday after it emerged that video clips it used to show the crazed affects of smoking synthetic marijuana were of men high on other drugs.

The controversy emerged two days after NYPD Police Commissioner Bill Bratton outlined his department's growing concern over synthetic marijuana, which he said is spreading across New York and is sold illegally for as little as $2 a packet in city corner stores.

It gives users super human strength, makes them impervious to pain and can cause violent behavior, Bratton said at a press conference on Tuesday, dubbing the substance "weaponized marijuana".

To illustrate the threat to police officers and civilians, Bratton played two videos that showed delirious, ranting men, naked in public. In one clip, a bloodied man smashes a hole through a wooden fence with his bare fist before being pepper sprayed and dragged to the ground by a group of officers.

The NYPD confirmed on Thursday that the men in the videos, which were previously used in police training, were in fact high on other narcotics.

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