Teen’s drug reaction points to K2, bath salts

SALEM, N.H. — Less than 48 hours after federal agents and local police raided a store for synthetic drugs, a local teenager apparently had a bad reaction after using them.

Police were called to a home on S. Policy Street late Thursday night after a caller reported a 17-year-old male was “flipping out.”

When police arrived, the teenager was “shirtless, lethargic and sweating heavily,” according to police reports.

“He appeared to be heavily impaired,” the report said.

Both the teen and his mother told police he had been smoking K2 and Crazy Monkey bath salts, according to police documents.

K2 is a brand name for synthetic marijuana. Those products were targets of a nationwide Drug Enforcement Administration effort Wednesday to shut down retail stores and manufacturing sites, and significantly cut down the availability of synthetic designer drugs.

Can You Dig It at 101 Main St. was one of four sites raided in New England, one of three in New Hampshire.

The pawn shop/tattoo parlor, which also sells “decorative” swords, pepper spray, adult novelties and clothing, pipes, rolling papers, DVDs and more, was swarmed by DEA agents, Salem and North Andover police Wednesday morning.

Some 76 cardboard boxes, marked as DEA evidence, were removed from the store Wednesday, filling two pickup trucks and a large SUV. No arrests have been made locally in connection with the sweep, dubbed Operation Log Jam, but local officials have said they expect that to happen at some point.

It’s the DEA’s show and, short of a press conference and news release Thursday, there hasn’t been a lot of specific information released. Repeated phone calls to the Boston DEA office have not been returned.

No one has said what kind of material was taken from the store during the execution of a federal search warrant. While local police were helping at the scene, it is in federal hands.

But Salem police will continue to monitor and investigate any activity around synthetic drugs, Deputy police Chief Shawn Patten said yesterday.

“Frankly, after the raids and working with the DEA, the officers found it ironic we would have an overdose of this type right after we had conducted that raid in close proximity,” he said yesterday.

The teen has not been charged and police can’t be sure he had taken K2 or bath salts, Patten said, but it seemed feasible.

“It’s consistent with use of those types of synthetic drugs,” he said.

The teenager was evaluated by Salem fire personnel and transported to Holy Family Hospital in Methuen.

He wouldn’t tell police where he got the drugs and said he was smoking alone, according to police reports.

Salem detectives spent some time Thursday visiting other stores in town that were suspected of or known to sell synthetic drugs, Patten said.

“Our detectives went around to all the other stores and advised them the stuff on the shelves was illegal and they looking for voluntary compliance before taking action,” he said. “All the stores we visited had already removed it from their shelves prior to our arrival.”

While Patten said police are happy with the level of voluntary compliance, they will continue to monitor activity and urge anyone who sees the products for sale to notify police.

He said police had been monitoring all the stores where they knew synthetic marijuana or bath salts were being sold, but the volume of activity and the inventory at Can You Dig It was much greater than at any other local business.

The store owner, Judith Tridenti of North Andover, has denied any illegal activity, according to her lawyer.

“There were several specific overdoses and issues that came out of that specific store,” Patten said. “We have had all the stores selling this merchandise under investigation. Can You Dig It was a larger supplier and was brought to the attention of federal investigators. They chose to include that store as part of the federal raid.”

If any store that has removed the items from its shelves starts selling them again, he said, charges would be forthcoming.

“One store owner told us the markup is enormous,” Patten said.

“He would buy it for $2 a pack and sell it for $20.” Several store owners told detectives they were unaware the products were illegal.

“I really believe the goal of the DEA was to shut off supply lines coming into the country, making it unavailable for sale in the U.S.,” Patten said.

“For us in Salem specifically, hopefully, it makes it more difficult for people to get, and easier for us to monitor and enforce.”

 

Fake Pot Is A Real Problem For Regulators

EnlargeNPRA screengrab from the Mr. Nice Guy site shows the company’s products, including Relaxinol, which was blamed for contributing to an accidental death.

This week, President Obama signed a law banning synthetic marijuana and other synthetic drugs. Dozens of states and local governments have already tried to outlaw fake marijuana, which has been blamed for hundreds of emergency room visits and a handful of fatalities.

But the bans have proved largely ineffective, and there are fears that the federal law won’t be any different.

Synthetic marijuana looks a bit like dried grass clippings. It’s readily available on the Internet and in convenience stores and smoke shops, where it’s sold as herbal incense or potpourri.

A Stand-In For Marijuana

At roughly $20 a gram, it’s unlikely that many buyers are using synthetic marijuana to freshen up the powder room. Most are smoking it as a substitute for real marijuana.

That’s what Aaron Stinson was doing last September.

“This is an actual packet that I found in his belongings, in his bedroom,” says his mother, Deirdre Canaday, as she holds up a small, shiny package.

The product is called Relaxinol — which, the label promises, can relieve “unwanted state of mind.” Canaday found the packet in Stinson’s apartment last year, shortly after he died in his sleep at a friend’s house in upstate New York.

“He had smoked a spice potpourri product called Mr. Nice Guy Relaxinol,” Canaday says. “And he went to sleep. And in the morning, about 9:30 a.m., his two friends woke up. But Aaron — they found him totally unresponsive, not breathing, no pulse.”

Canaday admits her son had a history of using drugs, specifically marijuana. But she says Stinson, who was 26, was getting his act together. He had a good job as a home health care aide. Canaday thinks Stinson was using synthetic marijuana that night for the same reason many people do: He was worried about passing a drug test for his job, and he knew that synthetic marijuana was not likely to show up.

“I think that my son, the only thing he did wrong was to be naive,” Canaday says, “to believe this stuff that’s packaged was all natural and safe, and a good alternative to something that was illegal — because it’s not.”

The pathologist determined the cause of Stinson’s death to be “acute intoxication due to the combined effects of ethanol (from alcohol consumption) and Relaxinol.” No charges were ever filed; the company that makes Relaxinol did not respond to requests for an interview.

Drugs Bring Side Effects And Uncertainty

There are no clinical studies about the health effects of synthetic marijuana. But anecdotally, health care providers report a long list of nasty side effects, from agitation and paranoia to intense hallucinations and psychosis.

Christine Stork, the clinical director of the Upstate New York Poison Control Center, says that she’s seen a steady stream of synthetic marijuana users turn up in emergency rooms over the past few years.

EnlargeJoel Rose/NPRDeirdre Canaday says that the people who sell synthetic marijuana are “worse than the drug dealers on the street.”

“They’re expecting a marijuana experience and pretty soon, they realize they’re not getting their usual experience,” she says. “They can be quite agitated. They can be quite paranoid. They require drugs to sedate them and may have seizures, which are pretty severe.”

Stork says synthetic marijuana can be 20 times as potent as real marijuana. But it’s hard to predict the strength of any particular brand or packet — in part because it’s remarkably easy for anyone to make and package synthetic marijuana without any oversight or regulation.

Video Tutorials In Drug Making

In a video posted on YouTube, an unidentified man shows how it’s done, using damiana, a Mexican shrub, as the base. All you need is some legal plant material and some chemical powders that can be easily ordered from overseas labs.

“Anybody with a working knowledge of chemistry, or that can follow a simple set of directions, can obtain and mix these substances and create these compounds,” says James Burns, a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration in upstate New York.

Most states have already moved to ban some synthetic cannabinoids — the chemical compounds that are the key ingredient in synthetic marijuana. But Burns says it’s not that simple.

“You have people that are very good with chemistry, that continue to manipulate the molecular structure of these substances,” he says. “So that they are creating analogues, or substances that are similar to those that have been banned.”

The result is a big game of cat and mouse. The government outlaws a certain compound or family of compounds. But then producers tweak the chemical formula of their products to skirt the law.

A $5 Billion Market

Despite a slew of federal, state and local bans, sales in the synthetic drug industry seem to be growing — to roughly $5 billion a year, according to Rick Broider, president of the North American Herbal Incense Trade Association.

“You can’t stop the market,” he says. “You know, there’s no piece of legislation that’s going to stop market demand.”

Broider runs a company called Liberty Herbal Incense in New Hampshire, which he says recently changed its chemical formulas to keep its products legal. He insists his industry’s products are not for human consumption, though he concedes that some people may be misusing the product by smoking it.

“We’re aware that there are a number of people who do choose to misuse our products for their euphoric effect. We do not support that at all,” Broider says. “If you’re going to misuse a product, you’re basically incurring a large risk to yourself. But our question is, don’t Americans have the right to assume their own personal risk?”

Would Broider allow his children to smoke herbal incense or synthetic marijuana products?

“You know, if my children are under 18 years old, I would not allow them to do anything that I wouldn’t deem appropriate to be doing under 18 years old,” he says. “When they’re over 18 years old, I would see it no differently than alcohol or tobacco, which are two products that have been proven to be addictive and have have proven to have negative health consequences.”

That argument doesn’t convince Canaday, who blames her son’s death on a different brand of synthetic marijuana.

“I would say they’re cowards,” she says of manufacturers like Broider. “I would say they’re absolute cowards. And worse than the drug dealers on the street that sell illicit drugs.”

A New Federal Law

So far, law enforcement officials have been mostly stymied in their efforts to treat synthetic drugs makers like conventional drug dealers. This week, President Obama signed the Synthetic Drug Abuse Prevention Act of 2012. It will mean tougher criminal penalties for selling some first-generation synthetic cannabinoids and many newer ones as well.

The new law should help, says Burns of the DEA.

“If we can make the bad guys react to what we’re doing instead of us reacting to what the bad guys are doing, then I think that’ll help us get a better handle on this issue,” he says.

But others worry that the new federal law is already obsolete.

“It’ll help in some regards, that these things need to be listed and controlled. And there’ll be no more discussion about, ‘I didn’t know,’ ” says Anthony Tambasco, a forensic scientist in Mansfield, Ohio. “But you’ll have, again, new compounds coming through the door that we’ll have to deal with.

As soon as Ohio outlawed a number of synthetic cannabinoids last year, Tambasco says, he started to see new compounds in local stores. And he expects drug makers will react just as quickly to the new federal ban.

“They already are. They’re already out in front of it. They’re already on their next batch,” he says.

When we spoke last week, Tambaso said there were already three synthetic cannabinoid samples he’d never seen before waiting for him in the lab.

Bath salts proving tough to control

Example of bath salts from DEA website (Credit: Drug Enforcement Administration)

Example of bath salts from DEA website (Credit: Drug Enforcement Administration)

KEENE — Christina Close, a drug addict most of her life, had been clean for more than a year before she discovered “bath salts.”

“I thought I was getting a legal high,” said Close, 31, of Keene.

The drug had a “horrific” effect on her, however, making her feel like she’d experienced a bad acid trip mixed with a cocaine high, she said recently.

“Bath salts” is a catch-all name for a group of synthetic drugs that mimic both stimulants and hallucinogens and can be bought at convenience stores throughout the country as well as online. These synthetic drugs that come in powder form are not the same as the cosmetic salts used for aromatic baths but are sometimes marketed as “stimulating bath salts.” They have also been marketed as plant food and stain remover among other household items.

Essentially, they are a chemically engineered central nervous system stimulant that mimics the effects of illegal drugs such as ecstasy, methamphetamine and cocaine, according to Assistant Attorney General Karin Eckel.

“Like every other state, we’re seeing problems with synthetic designer drugs,” Eckel said. “Typically, the young adults, teens, are purchasing these products. I think it’s pretty clear these substances are being used as alternatives to illegal drugs. They are being marketed in a way as to avoid illegal activity by labeling these items as bath salts or incense.”

Keene police Lt. Steve Stewart said officers have encountered several people suspected of being high on bath salts over the past year.

“We saw signs of paranoia and hallucinations. They thought that they were being followed,” Stewart said. “One of them had been talking about suicide and acted on it” unsuccessfully.

Fighting back

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is struggling to keep up with the new drugs.

In October 2011, the Drug Enforcement Administration placed an emergency ban on three synthetic cathinones — central nervous system stimulants — used to make bath salts, but manufacturers turned around and altered their chemical mixtures to keep the sale of their products legal.

“They adjust the chemical composition, so law enforcement is constantly going back to update what’s being sold, what’s being used and abused,” said Rockingham County Sheriff Michael Downing.

Rockingham County is also grappling with the new and growing drug problem, he said.

A few weeks ago, a woman’s bizarre behavior led police to seize more than $100,000 worth of bath salts and other synthetic drugs from a market on Route 125 in Plaistow near the Massachusetts border.

The bath salts raid was the first of its kind in New Hampshire, Downing said.

A few days later, the woman was found again displaying bizarre behavior, this time near the Plaistow market.

“We are aware of the problem, and we have been keeping our eyes open,” Downing said.

The seized substances have been sent to the state crime lab for analysis, and the case remains under investigation, he said. Because police are not sure yet whether the bath salts seized contain the illegal substances, no charges have been filed.

“Other parts of the country have experienced this problem,” Downing said, “but it’s spreading. It’s here, and it’s largely inexpensive, and that presents a problem because it’s being sold in places of business, so it’s readily accessible.”

Cases this year

So far in 2012, the state police forensics lab has had 42 cases involving bath salts, said Tim Pifer, lab director for New Hampshire State Police Forensics Lab.

In about half of those cases, the bath salts were found to contain controlled substances. The other half closely resembled banned drugs, but differed enough to avoid being considered illegal.

“It really is literally a cat-and-mouse game to change formulas and minor compositions of the chemical compounds to certainly subvert the law,” Pifer said.

Just last week, Eckel said, Congress passed another emergency ban on 26 synthetic chemicals and two synthetic cathinones.

Symptoms

Usually, police encounters with someone on bath salts result in a trip to the emergency room, Stewart said.

People experience extremely high heart rates, he said.

In one case, a man injured himself when he punched through a glass window.

“Part of the problem is, sometimes we don’t really know if that’s what they are on,” Stewart said.

Suspected users may also be dropped off at the county jail under 24-hour protective custody.

According to Richard N. Van Wickler, superintendent of the Cheshire County House of Corrections in Keene, the use of bath salts in the United States increased 2,000 percent in 2010.

Last week, he had a database set up to keep track of bath salts cases at the jail.

“We feel it’s that bad of a problem,” Wickler said. “This is an effort that we’ve just started because we noticed it’s been a significant increase, and it’s our impression that it’s much worse than the public thinks it is.”

One doctor’s view

Dr. Harnett Sethi, chairman and medical director of the Emergency Department at Chesire Medical Center/Dartmouth-Hitchcock Keene, said patients suffering from the effects of bath salts started trickling into the emergency room about a year ago.

“Most are coming in by either police or EMS or a combination of police or EMS,” Sethi said. “These are not patients that come easily.”

People on bath salts place a huge drain on hospital resources, as well as take an emotional toll on the nursing staff. The patients also keep police officers in the ER when they would normally return to their patrol.

“In these cases the police cannot even leave because the potential for violence or danger is so high,” Sethi said.

Sethi recalled a recent case in which a woman high on bath salts had two children in her care.

“The collateral damage to family and other people cannot be understated,” he said.

Manufacturers label the products “not for human consumption” in an attempt to avoid legal problems.

“Conversely and perversely, that’s what patients know to look for,” Sethi said. “It’s almost like they are using the not-for-human-consumption sticker for advertisement, which is twisted.”

Over the past year the number of cases has increased to the point in which it is not uncommon to see one a week. Sethi estimates that over the past three months the emergency room has seen between two to six bath salts patients a month.

At first it was drug-users known to ER staff, but the use of bath salts has since spread to a wider population of people, Sethi said. “There’s this perception … because they are legal they are safe, and that cannot be farther than the truth.”

The patients exhibit breathing and cardiac problems associated with uppers and the psychosis associated with hallucinogenic drugs, Sethi said. “It’s sort of a combination of crack and PCP. … It’s like the worst of both worlds. Not only do they trip, but they have a bad trip.”

There is an “out-of-control component” to these patients, he said, they are in “acute psychosis” and need to be heavily medicated on sedatives and anti-psychotic medications.

“The bath salts are even tipping our established users into a much more destructive behavior patterns,” he said. “There are so many bad things about bath salts. … I’m frankly just shocked there is not more of a public outrage about this. I can’t believe people aren’t out boycotting the stores selling these products.”

Nashua police convince store owners to stop carrying bath salts

NASHUA – Bath salts, K2, spice. All of it should be a lot harder to find in Nashua after police convinced store owners in the city to stop selling the dangerous synthetic drugs.

Nashua police Lt. David Bailey visited 55 independently owned convenience stores, gas stations and smoke shops recently and found 11 were selling the amphetamine-like chemical that has been blamed for dozens of bizarre and disturbing attacks across the country.

All of the stores agreed to stop selling the synthetic drugs, which are sold as bath salts, herbal incense, glass cleaner and more, after Bailey told them about their effects. He began visiting the stores after a spike in the number of people overdosing on it in the city, he said.

“We got information about increased problems about bath salts and synthetic marijuana,” Bailey said. “We took a proactive approach in what we were seeing as a pretty dramatic spike.”

The U.S. House of Representatives and Senate passed legislation last month that added 26 substances to the Controlled Drug Substance Act. That should make it more difficult to produce legal versions of the drugs, Bailey said.

A horrifying attack against a homeless man in Miami in May first brought the drugs into the spotlight. Police shot and killed 31-year-old Rudy Eugene after finding him biting off a homeless man’s face on the side of a Florida freeway.

Although bath salts were widely blamed for the “zombie” attack, officials recently determined Eugene was not on the drug when he was killed.

Nevertheless, it grabbed headlines. Since then, dozens of other bizarre incidents, some including cannibalism, have been blamed on the drugs.

Nothing quite that dramatic has happened in Greater Nashua, but there has been an increase of calls for people overdosing on the drug as well as police and EMTs having to deal with combative, violent and unpredictable people high on the drug.

Chris Stawasz, AMR operations manager, said he’s talked with his EMTs about the signs someone exhibits when they are on the drug, what dangers they present and how they should be treated.

“It’s very high at the top of our list right now for potential problems,” he said. “People are extremely violent, unpredictable. It’s a very high level of physical danger in these calls.”

Stawasz said a community-wide meeting between AMR, police, fire and hospital officials will be held soon to talk about how to address the increase in bath salt overdoses.

“Fortunately, we haven’t experienced the really bizarre incidents you read about,” he said. “It’s definitely here. It’s in Nashua. It’s a scary drug.”

Reports of people overdosing on the drug have increased across the state this year, spiking in April, according to data from the Northern New England Poison Control Center.

There were close to 15 calls to the center in April and nearly 10 in May, the latest month for which data was available. The increase in calls began in March 2011 after virtually no reports about the drug from June 2010 until then, according to the NNEPCC data.

The center, which covers New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont, took 30 calls about bath salts overdoses in Maine in May 2011, according to the report.