Student Caught With Fake Drugs

A Columbia teen is accused of carrying synthetic drugs into a high school.Police arrested 17-year-old Carson Hinners for possession of synthetic drugs and a pipe at Hickman High School.You have to be at least 18-years-old to buy smoking products in Missouri. Law enforcement say even after synthetic drugs like K-2 and bath salts were made illegal, it is still possible to get your hands on them.Since big drugs busts, like one at Mari’s Convenience Store in June when Sheriff’s deputies seized about $100,000 worth of the fake drugs, officers say there has been a decrease in cases. “We’ve seen a significant drop off,” said Boone County Sheriff’s Department Detective Tom O’Sullivan.”I think there was a big rush, people were seeing what it was all about and what the effects were,” Columbia Police Department Sergeant Joe Bernhard said. “And since it’s been made illegal we haven’t seen as much of it.” That is until Hinners was turned in at school. A school resource officer searched his backpack and reportedly found the illegal drugs and a pipe. “They’d have to find somebody who had it and then sell it to them,” Sgt. Bernhard said.Detective O’Sullivan says that would be a challenge because most stores know the risks of selling the substances.”I think a lot of merchants just don’t want to mess with it period,” Det. O’Sullivan said.To find out, ABC 17’s Janai Norman went to a local smoke shop and asked whether they sell synthetic drugs, or anything that can be misused to get high.”No, no, no, no,no,” one employee said. “If they call it synthetic anything, we’re not supposed to sell it to them or if they ask if they can consume it in any way or do anything but burn it, then we tell them we can sell it to them.”The employee says customers must be 18 to even look at the glass pipes sold in the store. Because the store also sells items like t-shirts and posters, you don’t have to be 18 to enter. Still, the employee says she and others card customers extensively. Norman asked, “Do you ever get younger people in here?””Oh yeah, all the time. I mean Rock Bridge is right there, we get all the high school students,” the employee said. “Of course we’re just like,’you’re higher schoolers, get out of here.” School officials never returned calls about the matter.Both Sgt. Bernhard and Det. O’Sullivan say this single incident isn’t enough to make them think there is a trend, or that the drugs are regaining popularity.