Minnesota prison placed in lockdown after staff was exposed to apparent synthetic drug

Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater

BAYPORT, Minn. (KFGO) – Stillwater state prison southeast of the Twin Cities was placed on temporary lockdown Thursday after staff members were exposed to suspected synthetic drugs and had to be taken to the hospital.

The Department of Corrections says guards responded to a report of a prisoner smoking an unknown substance in his cell.

One of the responding corrections officers became lightheaded and nauseous. He was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital. Six more staff members experienced similar reactions and five were taken to the hospital. In the same housing unit, a prisoner threw a container with an unknown substance from his cell that landed near staff and three more staff members became sick and had to be taken to the hospital. No one was admitted to a hospital.

The prisoner who was caught smoking the substance in his cell told investigators that the substance was “a stronger than expected dose of synthetic K2.”

The department is trying to determine how it got into the prison.