AHS Views

There’s a new, nasty, so-called ‘designer drug’ in town. It’s known as Cloud 9, or C-9. Why it’s called Cloud 9 is beyond me – because the effects of it are anything but what we would normally think of when someone says they’re ‘on Cloud 9.’ It’s dangerous, addictive and deadly, and anyone using it should get addiction help as soon as possible.

What is Cloud 9? It’s a chemical similar to ‘bath salts.” It’s a hallucinogen and stimulant. It’s sometimes marketed as plant food, insect repellent or fertilizer. It is, in fact, none of those, but if you hang those labels on it and make it look legitimate you can get it into a headshop or convenience store.

Here’s what someone taking it can expect:

• erratic behavior
• serious injuries
• addiction
• agitation
• abnormal heart beat
• delusions
• hallucinations

It is being touted as a replacement for Ecstasy. But according to Dr. David Withers, associate medical director of the Marworth Alcohol and Chemical Dependency Center in Waverly, “”When you buy this bath salt you are getting many hundreds more. For a very few dollars, $50 or less, you can get a tremendous amount of MDPV (a similar chemical in ‘bath salts’). But MDPV is many times more potent than Ecstasy. When (users) lay out a line, they can be taking 20 to 25 hits of Ecstasy.”

He also said that people take it compulsively: “They may be awake for days and may exhibit symptoms of psychosis. Like seeing things and hearing things.”

Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center sees about two or three cases of Cloud Nine intoxication a day.

The law is constantly trying to keep up with these ‘desinger drugs’ as they hit the street, but Cloud 9, which contains the illegal Mephedrone, is sold on the Internet.

This stuff is serious poison – as are most drugs.

If you hear anyone around you talking about being on Cloud 9, or you hear C-9, be aware that they may well be talking about this drug. And get them into drug rehab right away.

Meow meow – the chemical name is mephedrone – is one of the new so-called designer drugs. It’s very popular in Australia (where it originated), New Zealand, the UK and Europe. I’m surprised no one is making it in the U.S. It’s bound to happen soon. And plenty of people are going to need addiction help fast when it hits the streets.

What’s so dangerous about meow meow? A scientist in New Zealand analyzed the drug to see what effects it creates on the brain. He found out that it is similar to Ecstasy, but with a twist – it is also highly addictive.

Parents need to watch out for meow meow – which I’m sure will have other names soon. So, if you hear kids talking about kitties or some such thing, don’t brush it off as if they were animal lovers.

Mephedrone is one of the many designer drugs that have been created to circumvent the law. There’s nothing illegal about it yet; hopefully, it won’t take the law too long to catch up with it. In the UK, they already have legislation on the table to ban meow meow, along with other, similar drugs.

It’s hard to believe that there are people in the world who will go out of their way to create substances that are addictive, dangerous, can ruin people’s lives the lives of their families, can make people extremely ill and, in some cases, kill them.

But, they’re out there. If they weren’t, we wouldn’t have such a big drug problem in the U.S. This is not intended to scare anyone, but you do need to be constantly on the alert – just as you would with younger children, but for other dangers. And if there is any sign of a problem, don’t delay on getting your family members or friends into a good drug rehab.

I recently read a news item about a ‘head shop’ in Duluth, Minnesota. Head shops carry drug paraphernalia – incense, pipes, certain music, posters, and so on. The head shop in this story – called ‘Last Place on Earth’ – also carries ‘drugs’. In fact, they are not yet classified as drugs; the substances are dangerous chemicals that mimic the effects of methamphetamine, cocaine, LSD, etc. They are being called ‘designer drugs.’ Unfortunately, they are not yet illegal – although they will be very soon. The people who make them, sell them, and simply possess them will then be breaking the law. And it’s a good thing. These chemicals are causing very serious physical and mental conditions, and the people using them are in serious need of addiction help.

The news item about the head shop began: “On many mornings, it looks like it’s the hottest business in downtown Duluth. Dozens of customers line up in front of the Last Place on Earth head shop on Superior Street to buy designer drugs, including herbal incense — sold as a legal alternative to marijuana — with names such as No Name, Armageddon and DOA, and bath salts called Insurrection and Lunar Eclipse. Some of the fidgety customers look like they’re waiting to get into a soup kitchen. Others look like your next-door neighbor. The products they are seeking to buy are comprised of a class of chemicals perceived as legally mimicking cocaine, LSD and methamphetamine.”

Reports regarding the dangerous effects of these chemicals are mounting. The number of reports to the Poison Control Center went from 0 in 2009, to 302 in 2010, and to 2,237 in just the first six months 2011.

There have been 20 calls in the last month in the Duluth area alone. A police sergeant describes his experience with people using these chemicals/drugs: “My personal experience is that it looks like a really bad trip on meth to me. People hallucinate and have very erratic behavior. Paranoia. Very uncontrolled. They sometimes have violence toward themselves and toward others. Just very, very odd.”

A doctor at just one local hospital says he sees two to ten people a week coming into the ER for problems with these ‘designer drugs’. “People snort it, or mostly inject it, it seems, in the arm, or whatever vein they can access depending on whatever their drug history is. The last one I saw was somebody who had been using it and brought in by police. They had two (officers) to restrain him. He had high blood pressure, high pulse, screaming, really struggling with police that required him to be sedated and admitted to the hospital.”

He also said that the drugs can cause seizures, kidney failure and death, and that there have been many reports about people “being so psychotic and hallucinating that they cut themselves with knives.”

The owner of the store, whose name is Jim Carlson, said he expects to make $6 million this year off these chemicals. He makes no apologies; he told reporters that people have a right to do whatever they want for their ‘enjoyment.’

Right. Here I was thinking that going psychotic, cutting yourself and having seizures and kidney failure was a bad thing!

Mr. Carlson doesn’t use the chemicals himself, says he doesn’t like them. In fact, it appears he doesn’t use any drugs, just has one or two drinks a week.

The DEA is working on making these substances illegal; a temporary measure should be in place by mid-October and will last 12 to 18 months. The permanent law should be passed by then. The chemicals will be classified as “Schedule 1 substances, the most restrictive category, which is reserved for unsafe, highly abused substances with no currently accepted medical use in the U.S.”

Fortunately, we only have to wait until mid-October before people making or selling these chemicals can be prosecuted. As with other drugs, they would also be able to be prosecuted for any harm that comes to someone they sell them to.

One parent, whose son was using these chemicals, said she ‘can’t do anything about it because they’re not illegal.’ Yes, there is something you can do – kids don’t have to be using illegal chemicals to go to a drug rehab program. Making substances illegal illegal won’t help that end of things – the people using them will just find other drugs or chemicals if they can’t get these anymore. What they need is drug rehab.

But when the law does come into affect, I do hope that parents and other family members and friends of the people who have been harmed by these chemicals will take full advantage of their ability to prosecute the manufacturers and pushers.

New designer drugs are scary – and there aren’t too many more frightening than Crocodile, a designer drug taking Russia by storm. If Crocodile doesn’t kill you, you may be seriously impaired for the rest of your life. Will Crocodile make it to the U.S. and other countries? If it does, or if you or someone you know already has a drug problem and may be tempted to try Crocodile, it’s time to get addiction help – FAST.

People who take Crocodile regularly don’t usually live more than two or three years. Even those who manage to live through it and then get off the drug can suffer serious damage.

In the case of Pavlova, who recently entered a drug rehab program in a small village in Russia, the damage was something you would never expect. According to Andrei Yatsenko, the house manager of the drug program, Pavlova had “developed a speech impediment, and her pale blue eyes have something of a lobotomy patient’s vacant gaze, her motor skills are shot from the brain damage. She’ll try to walk forward and instead jolts back into something.”

The drug is nicknamed Crocodile because the skin turns greenish and scaly at the injection sites – anywhere from the feet to the forehead. The blood vessels burst and surrounding tissue dies. Bone tissue is destroyed by the drug’s acidity. This combination often results in gangrene or amputation. Pavlova went into rehab when, after a two-week binge, she started to develop gangrene in her groin, where she was injecting, and had blood poisoning. She was rushed to the emergency room where, fortunately, a representative of the drug rehab invited her to get addiction help.

Medical experts consider it somewhat of a miracle that she is still alive.

Pavlova is 27 years old; she started using drugs many years ago. First with a tar-like substance cooked from poppy seeds, a form of opium, then with heroin. But Crocodile costs 1/3 the price of heroin and is easy to make.

Crocodile is considered the ‘dirty cousin’ of morphine, but the active ingredient is codeine. The real problem is what it’s mixed with – things like gasoline, paint thinner, hydrochloric acid, iodine and red phosphorous which, believe it or not, is scraped from the striking pads on matchboxes. Can you imagine that concoction being injected into your veins?

As of last year, estimates say that up to a million people in Russia may be doing just that.

One of the worst problems with drugs is that someone who is high, or already addicted to something – as Pavlova was to heroin – or even just feeling like they want to experiment, will take just about anything. And they are usually not told what’s in it, or what it could do.

That is one very important reason to get anyone who is already taking drugs – even if they’re not addicted – through a good drug rehab program as soon as possible. And those who want to experiment should be educated so they know what they could be getting into.