Sniffing out a fruit-flavored trend in cocaine

Flavored drugs heading across country
Authorities said the flavored meth appeared to move rapidly into the eastern half of the country.

“It seems like everyone we run into knows someone that has at least been affected by it,” said a narcotics officer with the Sheriff’s Department in Benton County, Ark., whose name is being withheld because he works undercover.

“Unfortunately, I’ve seen a lot of young people, from teenagers to 20-somethings, doing the drug,” the officer said. “It's definitely something that’s real dangerous.”

Psychologist Sean O’Hara, an addictive-diseases specialist in San Diego, said the candy profile of the new drugs carried a double-whammy: Besides appealing to children in the first place, he said, they can also lull users into a false sense of security.

“They think if they’re getting something that has color in it or is sweet to the taste because it’s been cut with sugar or Jell-O and had other chemicals added to it ... it seems like it’s a less-threatening drug,” O’Hara said.

Alarmed by the emergence of the new forms the drug is taking, Sens. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, introduced legislation to increase penalties for dealers convicted of selling flavored meth. No hearings have been held, however, and the bill has languished in the Judiciary Committee since last April.

A similar House bill, sponsored by Rep. John Boozman, R-Ark., has remained in an Energy and Commerce subcommittee without hearings since June.

Parents urged to be on lookout
In the absence of new legislative tools for law enforcement to use, authorities said it was important for parents to be aware of the new drugs and to keep an eye out for materials that might not, at first glance, seem suspicious.

“If parents see a colored powder or sweet-smelling powder not in a factory package, I would pay real close attention to it,” said Hatfield of the Cathedral City police.

Said Sgt. Michael Conroy, a spokesman for the Virginia State Police: “We don’t want to hit the panic button, but we want to make parents aware.”

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