KRLD Investigation: Synthetic Drugs
DALLAS (1080 KRLD) - You've probably heard about marijuana, LSD and cocaine. All illegal, each with a hazard of its own. These days there are different drugs, like spice, bath salts and K-2, and they are becoming a big problem for everyone.
- KRLD Investigative Series: Synthetic Drugs:
The numbers are eye-opening.
Poison centers received 2,668 calls about exposures to these drugs in 2013. 3,682 in 2014, and last year, triple the number. 7,794 exposures to synthetic drugs. In fact, in April alone there were 19 calls to poison centers in Texas. That's higher than in any other state in the Country.
In our special series, KRLD Reporters LP Phillips and Emily Trube will highlight how complex an issue this has become in North Texas. We start with a father from Frisco who knows all too well just how dangerous synthetic drugs can be.
When Eric Brown talks about his son Montana, he gushes about the 15-year old. "Montana was a....an amazing kid," Brown says, adding, "A good student...bright , funny. In track he owned the time for the 400 meter in our...in our district."
Seemingly everything going his way. Until that day in December 2013, when Eric Brown got the call no parent wants. "Mr. Brown? We're, here at your home. Your...your sons have taken what's purported to be LSD. Your youngest son, Montana, is...uh...not responding to CPR," Brown says.
He was out of town on business 1,400 miles away. His other sons were also in distress. But LSD? Brown googled it, and his reaction to what he found? "Oh, thank God. Nobody ever dies from that unless they jump out of a building or in front of a car. It should be alright. 30-minutes later I'm talking to an ER doctor and she says, 'I'm sorry Mr. Brown your son didn't make it."
LSD is an hallucinogen. The three boys waited until the parents were gone to do some experimenting. They couldn't find hallucinogenic mushrooms....so they turned to a friend....who had another friend from Taiwan. What he said was LSD wasn't. It was a synthetic form. Street name, N-bomb.
Dr. Ashley Haynes of the North Texas Poison Center says, "Comas, seizure, death with just a drop of liquid that has N-Bomb in it. You know, we're talking a.. a couple grains of salt worth of less." And therein lies growing problem. Doctor Haynes says synthetic drugs like N-bomb, Spice and K-2 can be more lethal than the real stuff.
She says, "I would not put any comfort in the fact that it's a synthetic drug. It's just as dangerous, probably more dangerous. Very, very potent." And very easy to get, and very hard to prosecute.
(©2016 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
