Tag Archives: drug enforcement agency
Zombie drug ban
People are inventing so many new, legal ways to get high that U.S. 
lawmakers can’t seem to keep up.
Over the past two years, the country has seen a surge in the use of synthetic drugs made of legal chemicals that mimic the dangerous effects of cocaine, amphetamines and other illegal stimulants. Some are imported cheaply from China or India.
The drug that causes Zombie like reactions is often sold at small, independent stores in misleading packaging that suggests common household items like bath salts, incense and plant food. But the substances inside are powerful, mind-altering drugs that have been linked to bizarre and violent behaviour across the country. Law enforcement officials refer to the drugs collectively as “bath salts,” though they have nothing in common with the fragrant toiletries used to moisturize skin.
President Barack Obama signed a bill into law earlier this month that bans the sale, production and possession of more than two dozen of the most common bath salt drugs. But health professionals say that there are so many different varieties of the drugs that U.S. lawmakers are merely playing catch up.
“The moment you start to regulate one of them, they’ll come out with a variant that sometimes is even more potent,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
There are no back alleys or crack houses in America’s latest drug epidemic. The problem involves potent substances that amateur chemists make, package and sell in stores under brands like “Ivory Wave,” ”Vanilla Sky” and “Bliss” for as little as $15.
Emergencies related to the drugs have surged. The American Association of Poison Control Centers received more than 6,100 calls about bath salt drugs in 2011, up from just 304 the year before, and more than 1,700 calls in the first half of 2012.
The problem for lawmakers is that it’s difficult to crack down on the drugs. U.S. laws prohibit the sale or possession of all substances that mimic illegal drugs, but only if federal prosecutors can show that they are intended for human use. People who make bath salts and similar drugs work around this by printing “not for human consumption” on virtually every packet.
Barbara Carreno, a spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement Agency, said the intended use for bath salts is clear.
“Everyone knows these are drugs to get high, including the sellers,” she said.
Mark Ryan, director of the Louisiana Poison Center, says there are so many different drugs out there that it’s almost impossible to know what people have ingested, or how long the effects will last.
“Cocaine is cocaine and meth is meth. We know what these things do,” he said. “But with these new drugs, every time the chemist alters the chemical structure, all bets are off.”
The most common bath salt drugs, like MDPV and mephedrone, were first developed in pharmaceutical research laboratories, though they were never approved for medical use. During the last decade they became popular as party drugs at European raves and dance clubs. As law enforcement began cracking down on the problem there, the drugs spread across the Atlantic.
Poison control centres in the U.S. began tracking use of the drugs in 2010. The majority of the early reports of drug use were clustered in southern states like Louisiana, Tennessee and Kentucky. But the problem soon spread across the country.
The most dangerous synthetic drugs are stimulants that affect levels of both dopamine and serotonin, brain chemicals that affect mood and perception. Users, who typically smoke or snort the powder-based drugs, may experience a surge in energy, fever and delusions of invincibility.
Zombie Apocalypse and the ‘bath salts’ link: 34 states already impacted per DEA
The zombie apocalypse that America and Canada is said to be experiencing this week due to ‘bath salts’ didn’t happen overnight, as some might think.
In fact, news released on Friday show that this law enforcement problem has been occurring around the country long before the Causeway cannibal face-eating attack in Miami, or the other cannibalistic acts in California, Canada or Maryland. In fact, law enforcement and medical personnel in as many as 34 states have been battling this growing ‘zombie apocalypse’ drug problem for quite some time.
The United States Drug Enforcement Agency really started to sit up and take notice of synthetic designer drugs in 2009, when so-called “fake pot” began making the rounds under the names K-2 and Spice, among others. Two reports about one of the key drugs in that product caught the DEA’s attention that year.
And thanks to poison control centers and hospitals joining law enforcement in making reports to the DEA, about the increases they began to see in those using the so-called “fake pot” products, a better picture began to emerge of the dangers currently being seen now, allegedly.
Reports of anxiety attacks, convulsions, elevated heart rates, increased blood pressure, as well as disorientation were being experienced in growing numbers. And fortunately 16 states listened up and took the necessary action to control those so-called fake pot drugs. But that was just the beginning, with recreational drugs known as ‘bath salts’ soon following.
By 2010 a key drug in both products had brought as many as 338 cases to their attention. Those numbers jumped in less than a year in 2011, when 911 cases were noted, and the problem had grown to impact as many as 34 states.
Almost one year ago this month, the New York Division of the DEA, under the leadership of Special Agent in Charge John Gilbride, finally took down a major ‘bath salts’ distributor, hoping to curb the recreational drug availability that is used at raves and as a recreational drug.
The dangerous substance is purchased at retail shops, gas stations and other businesses due to being labeled deceptively as bath salts, which are given many different names, including “Aura,” “Goodfellas,” “Ivory Wave,” “Russian River” and “Xtreme,” though there are many more names used as well.
The drug is typically snorted as powder or taken as a pill, according to the DEA. It is also injected intravenously and smoked by users who experience symptoms that range from panic attacks and increased heart rates to delusions and psychotic episodes. And if the toxicology screen in Miami comes back to reveal bath salts in the MacArthur “Causeway cannibal” attack, the adverse effects experienced will grow to include face-eating among other things.
By September of 2011, the DEA had heard enough negative reports on the adverse symptoms being experienced by those using the fake bath salts products labeled “Not for human consumption” that they immediately exercised their authority to control the three drugs most concerning: Mephedrone, MDPV and Methylone.
And they were not alone, as 33 states had now grown concerned enough to either ban or control the products containing these substances, which are usually labeled as “bath salts” or “plant food.” Five short months later, in February of this year, the DEA extended their control of this dangerous group of chemicals by six months, which by the way, is also in the so-called “fake Pot” products.
Miami’s face-eating attacker Rudy Eugene was said to be hooked on marijuana by one of his friends. It is unclear if he was possibly using the so-called “fake pot” that contains this dangerous drug under the watchful eye of the DEA or if it was a ‘bath salts’ product instead that may have resulted in the horrific zombie like attack on Ronald Poppo.