Synthetic drugs more dangerous than real drugs

Synthetic drugs, often interchangeably known as designer drugs, spread from Europe to the U.S. as recently as 2009 and have been a growing method by which users have been getting high purportedly without getting caught, although they are caught. There are many scientific-community observations about synthetic drugs. One is that they are less dangerous than the real thing; thats absolutely false.

Owned by Dayton residents, Baytown-based STAT Testing, a drug and alcohol testing firm, has executives who speak candidly about the reality of this phenomenon, experts such as Marketing, On-Sites and Mobile Services Director Heather Barlow, who know that education is one of the keys to addressing the problem. Barlow was the guest speaker at the Oct. 2 Dayton Chamber of Commerce Luncheon held at the Dayton Community Center.

Police in Mont Belvieu in June arrested people who were on it; indeed three one night were jailed down there when STAT Testing personnel were doing a town hall meeting in that city. Their accounts of the mind-altering effects should alarm people into never fooling with synthetic marijuana, synthetic cocaine, known as bath salts, or any other manmade drug containing chemical compositions that produce stronger effects of the real thing. Often the real thing is chemically manipulated in an illegal lab to generate the illegal drug, Barlow said.

They had three people in a jail cell, Barlow said. They had to be separated. Nationwide, they already outnumber the people that are pulled over for drunk driving.

One guy ate three rolls of toilet paper. One guy shredded his shirt and this is the Mont Belvieu chief of police telling us this these people are erratic, unpredictable and very dangerous, and they really dont know what theyre doing. Another guy shredded his shirt into such tiny pieces that they couldnt pick them up off the floor; they had to be swept.

There are serious consequences for using synthetic drugs. As health care professionals at poison control centers and hospitals have long noticed and they are the ones who alerted the nation to the problem people have become very sick, Barlow said.

Some have called for help because they experienced symptoms similar to those of heart attack or stroke or they felt their skin burning to the extent that they feared for their lives. Doctors have had to administer manifold doses of drugs intended to subdue people who were high on synthetic drugs because regular doses could not control them.

Sold in packets ranging from $15 to $40, these drugs pack an inestimable risk. Barlow said that teens and middle-age people are using them.

One form of synthetic drugs is synthetic marijuana.

It actually looks like potpourri incense, Barlow explained. What happens is it has actually taken a form of THC, the principal compound found in marijuana, they liquidized it, and they turned it into a spray. They take that spray and spray a potpourri.

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Synthetic drugs more dangerous than real drugs