Homemade drugs frustrating police

GRAND FORKS - When Andrew Spofford was arrested by Grand Forks police last month, he told them he is a "hobby chemist."

Police say the end result of his chemistry was a synthetic drug that appears to have killed two teens in the area and sent several others to the hospital with overdoses.

Its a growing problem for law enforcement as investigators struggle to identify a myriad of new synthetic drugs. Knowledge of basic chemistry has allowed drug cooks to make small molecular changes to existing drugs, creating new substances and keeping the cooks a step ahead of investigators.

We are seeing a continued influx of changing of chemical compounds that make up various drugs or substances being ingested throughout the state, said Drew Evans, senior special agent with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. They are changing at the molecular level into something it wasnt before, but may have similar effects or different effects.

His agency investigated the East Grand Forks, Minn., death of Elijah Stai, 17, of Park Rapids, on June 15. The agencys labs concluded Stai had ingested a psychedelic substance called 25iNBOMe, which law enforcement officials allege Spofford cooked. The same batch of drugs allegedly killed Christian Bjerk, 18, of Grand Forks on June 10 or 11.

The chemistry recipes Spofford may have used to alter the original drug shipped from Europe could have easily been found on the Internet, said David Pierce, chairman of the UND chemistry department.

Using organic chemicals to make up drugs is the most variable type of chemistry out there, he said. They are performing standard chemistry transformations but are doing it in an uncontrolled environment.

Spofford told investigators he cooked the drug in his home, and had sold a sheet that included 60 to 100 hits for $500 at one point.

Pierce said that by ordering the drug from Europe, Spofford would have been able to bypass many steps he may not have had the knowledge or tools to make. The small chemical alterations Spofford would have had to do could have been complicated, taking anywhere from 20 minutes to three days.

Pierce compared the process to baking in the kitchen. The chemical reactions are dependent on exact quantities. The cook has to have exact measurements and use the exact amount of heat. He also has to know how long the chemicals have to react over a certain period of time and at a particular temperature.

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Homemade drugs frustrating police