New Synthetic Drug Worries Many

Law enforcement and doctors are sending out a warning about a new synthetic drug. It’s known as 2C-I or “smiles.” Two teens in North Dakota died from overdosing. Authorities in Los Angeles believe a TV actor was on “smiles” as he killed his landlady before jumping off a building to his death.As of right now, “smiles” isn’t on the immediate radar for local law enforcement. They tell ABC 17 News bath salts and K2 have recently died down, but that leaves an avenue open for someone to bring something like “smiles” into the community.The Boone County Sheriff’s Department is always on the lookout for anything like “smiles.” They saw problems bath salts and synthetic marijuana, but they believe they shut the source down.”It seems at least we’ve put a dent into it for now, its subsided,” Boone County Sheriff’s Department Detective Tom O’Sullivan explains. “It all comes down to if there’s a profit motive, if there’s money to be made somebody will figure out a way to get it to market.”Nobody at the Sheriff”s Department or local drug counselors we talked with has seen “smiles” in the community yet. We looked into the side effects of the drug. In one of the death cases, the teenager was hyperventilating, hitting his head against the ground, and foaming from the mouth before he died. The drug often makes people hallucinate and makes them feel giddy.Law enforcement says they aren’t sure if it will make it to the area, but if it does they will be ready to try and shut it down.”If we get information that a commercial establishment, or private individual, is engaging in the sale of these banned substances we do take appropriate action,” O’Sullivan said.Doctors say these synthetic drugs are not tested. That means there could be other harmful chemicals in there that we wouldn’t know about.