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90 Arrested In Synthetic Drug Sweep
A selection of “bath salt” packages
Five million packets of synthetic drugs resembles a giant pile of classic Kool Aid envelopes. They are about the same size, and instead of pictures of the cartoon Kool Aid pitcher, the drugs have pictures of Scooby-Doo. The packets are sold in convenience stores and are popular among teens and young adults.
The drugs are synthetically manufactured and mimic cocaine, LSD, MDMA and methamphetamines. They also have a horrific history of causing psychotic breaks and bizarre behavior, erratic actions and violence. The drugs are popular because they are cheap. They are packed as crystals called bath salts and plant food, and are also mixed with herbs to create a smokable variety which mimics PHC, the active ingredient in pot which is called Spice, K2, Blaze and Red X Dawn.
Federal law enforcement has been doing a lot of these multi-state raids with dozens of arrests. The last one involved Medicare and Medicaid fraud. When an administration is being accused daily of not enforcing laws, not protecting the nation, not securing our border, it is not enough to say “we arrested two people last week in Oshkosh and four people in Tampa yesterday, these huge-net-raids are good headline grabbers and the way these raids are being done probably have as much to do with public relations as with law enforcement. They make for good photo-ops. The ICE probably wishes they could load up twenty or thirty busses with illegal immigrants and drive them to the border for similar photo-ops.
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One Response to 90 Arrested In Synthetic Drug Sweep
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Dr. Winfield Scott
July 27, 2012 at 4:22 pm
Dear Linda Carbonell,
From the headline, I thought this column was going to include specific information about 90 people arrested in a drug sweep.
Imagine my consternation when I discovered that the topic of the headline was never specifically explained, and in fact mentioned only in passing, in what seems like an accusation that law enforcement agencies are only doing this as an act of showboating, in order to get good press for the existing executive administration. …A ludicrous assertion, which is made after a fairly condescending “explanation” of what synthetic drugs are. …Was this necessary because this information hasn’t been the lead story on hundreds of thousands of newscasts in the last five weeks?
You say the drugs are popular because they are cheap. In fact, they are only slightly cheaper than street drugs. They are popular because, until recently, they were entirely legal to buy and sell… so you could have a backpack full of the stuff, and not get arrested for anything. Likewise, you mention that they have a history of causing psychotic breaks. I have been unable to find any medical literature that concludes these substances have led to psychosis, which is a relatively permanent neurological condition. Much more often, they lead to medical emergencies because of severe body temperature rise, skyrocketing bloodpressure, and rapid heart rate. In fact, these incidences are 100 times more common than the violent episodes which have garnered the recent news spotlight.
In short, the only actual information you presented here was ill-informed and thereby unblanced.
Incidentally, marijuana doesn’t have “ingredients”, because it is not a formulation, it is a plant. It contains compounds. And the key psychoactive compound is Tetrahydro Cannibinol. That’s THC, not PHC as you wrote. Most people under 50 know that off the top of their head.
I imagine PHC would be Petrohydro Cannibinol… which I guess would be herbal rocket fuel, the fumes of which were perhaps responsible for your wild swerve from the subject of your headline to a completely unrelated and ungrounded jab at the U.S. Department of Immigration & Customs Enforcement, with which you conclude, completely out of the blue.