The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) has been working with the Bausch Foundation, the independent charitable organization of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (Valeant) to secure a donation of nearly 800,000 tablets of vitamin K.  The tablets will provide treatment for people who have suffered severe bleeding after using synthetic cannabinoids (spice, K2, etc.) laced with rat poison.  A chemical found in rat poison, brodifacoum, prevents blood from clotting, resulting in severe bleeding.  High doses of vitamin K taken over several months can help restore the blood’s ability to clot. More than 150 people in Illinois, including three deaths, have been sickened by the synthetic cannabinoids.  Symptoms include coughing up blood, blood in the urine, severe bloody nose, bleeding gums, and/or internal bleeding.  As soon as IDPH identified that the severe bleeding was caused by rat poison, IDPH began working on access to treatment.  Synthetic cannabinoids are human-made, mind-altering chemicals that are sprayed on to dried plant material.  These chemicals are called cannabinoids because they act on the same brain cell receptors as the main active ingredient in marijuana.  The health effects from using synthetic cannabinoids can be unpredictable, harmful, and deadly.