Pubdate: Sat, 22 Sep 2012
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 2012 Houston Chronicle Publishing Company Division, Hearst Newspaper
Contact:  http://www.chron.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/198
Author: Anita Hassan

DANGEROUS DESIGNER DRUG HITS THE STREETS

It started with hallucinations and quickly turned violent. Kevin 
Anthony Schoolmeyer was driving home to Friends-wood from a party in 
June when the 21-year-old started to hit his friend sitting in the 
passenger seat.

Then suddenly, his limbs began to flail around, he punched the 
console and began ripping accessories off the vehicle's interior, 
according to an autopsy report.

Shortly after that, he died.

Schoolmeyer's was the first case. The following month a 15-year-old 
Houston girl also returning home from a party with a friend said she 
felt sick before her arms and legs began thrashing around. About 30 
minutes later, she was dead.

Authorities believe what killed these two young people is the newest 
designer drug hitting Houston's streets: 25I.

The blandly named drug is a synthetic chemical substance that acts as 
psychedelic hallucinogenic, similar to LSD and ecstasy, according to 
the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences.

The substance is the latest class of synthetic drugs being abused in 
Harris County. These designer drugs include stimulants such as those 
marketed as bath salts and synthetic marijuana.

Found to provoke psychotic and paranoid episodes, the drugs have 
caused a number of overdoses in the region and country in the last few years.

Hard to regulate

Law enforcement and legislators have been hurrying to ban these 
substances. However, manufacturers can alter the chemical compounds 
in numerous ways to skirt existing drug laws, putting them on the 
market faster than they can be banned.

Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Jeffrey Scott, who 
works in the agency's public affairs sector in Washington, D.C., said 
these synthetic drugs are not only difficulty to regulate, but also 
hard for authorities to identity.

"If I don't know as an investigator what's in those packets, how can 
anyone just buying them off the street or in those stores have any 
hope to know what's inside of them, much less what it's going to do 
to them," he said.

Chemists at the county forensics institute began seeing cases of 
synthetic drugs about two years ago, beginning with synthetic 
marijuana, then about a year later with bath salts.

Since January, the drug chemistry lab has seen 11 cases where 25I was 
found in controlled substances brought in for testing by law 
enforcement agencies.

Officials said the substance is usually found on websites, being sold 
as a "research chemical." Locally, it has been sold by individual dealers.

"Usually what happens is they purchase it in the powder form and that 
can be dissolved in a liquid like alcohol and sprayed on blotter 
paper," said Dr. Warren C. Samms, drug chemistry laboratory manager 
at the forensics institute. "What we tend to see when we see these 
cases in the drug lab is that it looks much like LSD paper."

That's what Schoolmeyer told his friend he took at the party he 
attended: two tabs of LSD, according to the autopsy. His family could 
not be reached for comment.

The 15-year-old girl who died a month later was at a party and seen 
carrying a water bottle with an unknown substance inside of it before 
she died. Her mother declined to comment and said the case was under 
investigation by the Houston Police Department.

Like many synthetic drugs, 25I was created in academic institutions 
or other chemistry labs for legitimate research purposes before they 
became used recreationally.

When consumed by a human, the drug binds to receptors in the nervous 
system and causes the psychotic behaviors associated with a 
hallucinogenic, said Dr. Jeff Walterscheid, assistant chief 
toxicologist at the forensics institute.

Used in cell research

"These research chemicals, they were made for use in laboratories to 
probe the inner workings of the cells and for that they are great 
techniques," he said. "But for someone to take it out while they are 
at a party is extremely dangerous for them to do."

The modifications of chemical structures vary and present a challenge 
for testing and detection. Because the forensic institute houses a 
medical examiner's office and drug laboratories, officials can share 
their findings and look out for synthetic drug trends such as 25I.

When the forensics institute received the two death cases over the 
summer, each without apparent explanations for their symptoms, 
officials began to look to synthetic drugs as the culprit.

"You have to think that way (to test for synthetics)," said the 
forensic institute's deputy chief medical examiner Dr. Dwayne Wolf.

"The people that are dying from this are young, healthy individuals 
with absolutely no psychiatric disorder or anything else to explain 
why they would all of a sudden go crazy like this and die within 
hours," he said.

Federal act

Lawmakers are also working as swiftly as possible to outlaw as many 
of the synthetic drugs as possible. In July, President Barack Obama 
signed the Synthetic Drug Abuse Prevention Act of 2012, which 
classified 26 synthetic drugs as controlled substances.

However, it appears that as quickly as the synthetic drugs are 
banned, manufactures tweak the chemical compounds, creating new 
substances which fall outside the law, said Karen Tannert, a chief 
pharmacist for the Texas Department of State Health Services.

"We've never seen such chameleon chemicals," she said. "It usually 
takes a lot to create a new chemical entity and with these it's 
incredibly easy. This is the first time I've ever seen anything like it."

To address the growing problem, Tannert said more lawmakers, 
including those in Texas, are crafting legislation to ban chemical 
categories and modifications to those compounds.

For now, officials say the best way to combat synthetic drugs is 
educate the public that even if the substances are legal, they are 
very dangerous.

"With things changing so rapidly, there's no way to know that 
something is safe," Samms said. "Even if someone is telling you it's safe."
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