Harmful drugs hide behind innocent names

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Wood County Prosecutor Paul Dobson holds up a
drawing by a local elementary student that reads "say no to gangs"
during a Red Ribbon luncheon at the Educational Service Center in Bowling Green.
(Photo: J.D. Pooley/Sentinel-Tribune)

Names like "Molly," "Meow,"
"Smiles," "Genie" and "White Dove," may sound
innocent, but in fact they are brand names for dangerous man-made drugs that
have been linked with kidney failure, extreme violence and even death.Officer
George "Pat" Willis, a veteran law enforcement officer with the Lake
County Narcotics Agency, made a presentation Friday called "Synthetics: The
Good the Bad and the Ugly," at the Wood County Educational Service Center
as part of Red Ribbon Week.His presentation covered a new form of Ecstasy, laced
with another dangerous drug called "BZP" as well as products marketed
as "bath salts" and "spices," which are actually drugs, and
the serious dangers of "huffing."These drugs, while banned federally,
are being sold in convenience stores and head shops, for example.They use names
like "Genie," "spice," or "Ivory Wave" and are
marketed as bath salts, plant food, spot remover, insect repellent and scratch
remover."They are sold as a lot of stuff simply, again, to try and hide it
a little bit," he said.But they are not any of those things, he assured.
They are being smoked, snorted and injected to produce a high.These products
constituted a $9 billion industry in 2011 and the effects of their use are
startling.Willis presented a collection of national headlines related to bath
salt abuse. They included: a man high on bath salts burning his
"possessed" 5-year-old son; a man high on bath salts thinking he was
being chased by electricity; a man high on bath salts who killed his girlfriend;
and a man who walked around chopping at shelves in a grocery store with a
machete.With these products, there is a high chance of overdose as users can use
more and more and continue to increase their high.And they are sold fairly
cheap. Most "bath salts" are sold in 100 to 500 mg packets. It takes
only five milligrams to get high. That’s 20 doses for about $11, Willis said.
And again, with such large amounts being sold in a single packet, the chance for
overdose increases."You are upping your ante with dying," he
warned.Synthetic drugs, like those discussed above are banned federally, but
enforcement locally is difficult without more effective state and local
legislation, Willis said.He called Ohio’s legislation against these "bath
salts" largely ineffective."Ohio has banned six out of the possible 68
synthetic bath salts," he said."We are so far past these six chemicals
– forget it," Willis said.The Ohio law, he said, punishes those in
possession or dealing the synthetic drugs containing those six chemicals, but
not those retailers selling it."Unless they say put it in a pipe and smoke,
you can’t do anything. If they sell it as incense or bath salt there is nothing
you can do about it," Willis said.Bowling Green’s laws, according to City
Prosecutor Matt Reger, closely mirror Ohio’s law on bath salts.The only
additional tool the city has to enforce against these drugs, Reger said, is its
law against harmful intoxicants."But even that is difficult to prove,"
Reger said.Willis, in his presentation Friday, also talked about the serious
dangers of huffing.Huffing, he said, has been linked with "Sudden Sniffing
Death," where a person using an inhalant or "huffing" can die
with "no warning at all.""The person can be sitting on the couch
next to you laughing and joking and huffing out of a bag and then – bam –
dead.Studies have shown, Willis said, of those people who die from huffing, 30
percent of them died after inhaling for the first time."How many kids have
been told this," Willis asked. "I am guessing not many."

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