After a rash of incidents last month in which staff members at state prisons and county jails were sickened from an apparent exposure to illicit drugs in those facilities, state officials on Wednesday rolled out new policies and procedures meant to clamp down on smuggling.

The moves, announced by state Corrections Secretary John Wetzel, drew praise from state legislators representing Butler County and reflected growing concerns over how the synthetic drugs — in particular the drugs known as “synthetic marijuana” — are impacting safety at jails and prisons throughout the region.

The moves — major changes in the way state prisons handle inmate mail, rolling out drone detection technology to all 25 state facilities, drug-detecting body scanners, tighter supervision requirements for inmate visitation and stiffer penalties for inmates and visitors attempting to smuggle drugs into the facilities — follow a month in which dozens of state employees were sickened over a three-week period.

Reacting to the rollout Wednesday, state Rep. Tedd Nesbit, R-8th, whose district includes SCI-Mercer, where six staff members were rushed to the hospital on Aug. 8 after being sickened by an unknown substance, said he supported the increased security measures.

“I'm happy that the department has taken action,” said Nesbit. “It's just so hard to detect and so prevalent; it's unfortunate that people ended up getting sick. We're trying to do everything we can to clamp down on this, because it is imperative that we protect people.”

Medical emergencies occurred at SCI-Mercer, Greene and Fayette, as well as at county facilities including Butler County Prison and Allegheny County Jail, which was locked down Monday after 11 employees were sickened Sunday night, under circumstances that remain ultimately mysterious but have now become familiar.

The lockdown of state-run prisons, which began Aug. 29, wasn't the first lockdown of the late summer for a corrections facility in Western Pennsylvania.

On Aug. 14, six employees at Butler County Prison reported experiencing shortness of breath, dilated pupils, dizziness and a burning sensation in their mouths and throats, according to the jail's warden Joe DeMore. The group was hospitalized but their symptoms subsided after a few hours.

DeMore ordered a lockdown of the prison for five days, forcing all prisoners into isolation while officials conducted a jail-wide search with the help of drug sniffing dogs.

While the cause of the medical events hasn't been conclusively determined, corrections officials for the county and state have said they believe the culprit to be synthetic marijuana, sometimes called K2.

“I'm leaning, just like everyone else is, toward believing that it's K2 being sprayed on (inmates') mail,” DeMore said.

The origins of the drug, the use of which has been linked to a rise in violent incidents at some state-run corrections facilities, date back to the previous century and an organic chemist from Clemson University.

John W. Huffman, an American organic chemist now retired from Clemson University, first synthesized novel cannabinoids in the 1980s to research the cannabinoid system, according to a study in which Huffman participated.

Since then, though, the chemical has been adopted for recreational purposes across the country. There are more than 400 variants of the chemical, commonly known as JWH, an acronym for Huffman's name.

Cannabinoids stimulate receptors in the brain responsible for regulating a person's appetite, sleeping patterns and sex drive.

Marijuana is a natural cannabinoid. Products with JWH are distributed under brand names like K2 and Spice by companies that often sell their product online and are advertised as “herbal incense.”

The effects of smoking JWH chemicals are said to be like smoking marijuana, but have a significantly stronger effect on a person, according to studies. Manufacturers will typically spray the chemical onto an organic material that can be burned and smoked.

DeMore suspects that inmates at the jail were receiving JWH chemicals in the mail. It would be possible for a sender to spray the chemical onto paper. An inmate would burn the paper and inhale the smoke, to ingest the drug.

Following the medical emergencies Aug. 14, jail officials updated policies and procedures at the facility — in particular changing the way inmate mail is handled. Now inmates receive photocopied versions of mail. The policy does not apply to legal correspondence.

But despite the attempt to clamp down on drug smuggling, challenges persist. Because JWH has so many chemical variants on a molecular level, there's no one true way to test the mail, even if officials wanted to.

The drugs also impact more than prisons and jails. Use of JWH extends beyond the incarcerated. Since 2009, the harmful effects of these drugs have been reported to poison control centers nationally.

As of August 2018, poison control centers have managed 1,448 calls for synthetic cannabinoid-related exposure cases, according to National Poison Data System, American Association of Poison Control Centers.

Within Butler County, though, law enforcement hasn't noticed any increase in the drug's street use, said Lt. Matthew Pearson.

“It's just regular opiate use out here,” the Butler Township police officer said.