DEA battle against synthetic drugs grows as poison control calls skyrocket for “spice”
The battle against synthetic drugs is heating up in Arizona, as new numbers show calls to poison control centers, regarding “spice”, are skyrocketing.
Already in 2015 there have been 140 calls in Arizona, making us the seventh highest state in the U.S. Comparing our state to California, we in the desert are seeing double the calls. California has had 71 calls.
“It scared me a lot,” Joshua Truax, a recovering spice addict, said.
He smoked spice for the first time when he was a 15-year-old. What started out as a fun way to get high, quickly took him to a darkness he couldn’t find a way out of.
“I gave everything to my buddy and I said, ‘don’t let me get high anymore’,” Truax said. “And within 10 minutes I was fighting him to get my stuff back and get high again.”
Spice is a mixture of chemicals from China, that are sprayed on leaves, but there’s nothing natural about it.
It can lead to violent outbursts, psychotic episodes and hallucinations.
“A Dr. Jeckle, Mr. Hyde complex,” Traux explained.
The most recent case in Phoenix made national headlines after a man, who police said was high on spice, decapitated his wife, mutilated their dogs and cut off his own arm and ripped out his own eye.
“You’ve lost your mind,” Dough Coleman, head of the DEA in Arizona, said. “Everything that you’re seeing now, you’re perceiving it.”
“It’s not really happening, but it’s so real in your mind you’re going to take these actions.”
Coleman said the major problems with these types of synthetic drugs are that manufacturers are changing chemicals so quickly trying to stay in line with what’s not yet been outlawed.
“We’re always a step behind,” Coleman said. “Because we’re trying to get the law to catch up with the chemistry.”
And people who are buying the chemicals overseas trying to follow online instructions to produce it are creating a recipe for disaster.
“The sad thing is, in 5 to 10 years down the road, I don’t know what’s going to happen to me,” Truax said. “They’re all research chemicals.”
The fight against synthetic drugs keeps growing everyday.
“It’s LSD from the 60s, but now theres’s 500 of them out there,” Coleman said. “And it’s only going to get worse”
The DEA receives most of its tips from the public. If you suspect a smoke shop may be selling the drug, or know of anything suspicious, contact the DEA.
Filed under: General Problems
Typical DEA “Reefer Madness” bullshit