New York City ended 2024 with a series of horrific subway incidents linked by a hidden thread: the state’s choice to legalize marijuana.

Just days before Christmas, Debrina Kawam, a troubled New Jersey woman, was set on fire on an F train and burned to death, allegedly by Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala.

Zapeta-Calil was deported from the United States in 2018 but returned and was living in a Brooklyn homeless shelter. According to a shelter roommate, Zapeta-Calil was generally a normal, pleasant person who spoke with “good manners and respect” — unless he was drunk or high on K2, a synthetic cannabinoid.

He was said to have a habit of chain-smoking K2, spending $30 daily on the illegal drug.

K2 became a scourge in New York City about a decade ago. This unregulated substance — composed of plant material sprayed with hallucinogenic chemicals — was associated with erratic, sometimes violent behavior, in some cases reducing users to a “zombie-like” state. A notorious 2018 incident saw 56 people hospitalized after smoking a bad batch.

New York cracked down on K2 by making the production of synthetic cannabinoids illegal in 2012 and banning their sale entirely in 2015. The city’s........

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