A 17-year-old Grand Forks boy remains in critical condition tonight after what police are calling an overdose of a synthetic hallucinogen. Police aren't sure where he the drugs came from but they're now warning people in the Grand Forks area about the dangers of all synthetic drugs.
Most have heard about synthetic drugs by now. They're sold as incense and bath salts at many smoke shops and it says right on the label, not for human consumption. But in the Grand Forks area more and more cases are popping up after people abuse these and similar man made drugs.
Lt. Rodney Hajicek of the East Grand Forks Police Department has seen nearly a half dozen cases of this type of an overdose in the past few weeks, "these kids or young adults are in full blown medical emergencies and need to be transported immediately to the hospital."
The synthetic drug police are dealing with has effects similar to cocaine or heroine. The particular synthetic there looking at now authorities believe has extracts of hallucinogenic mushrooms.
"They're portraying this as some type of hallucinogen or some type of drug that's going to give you a high. But you don't know what it is, you don't know how to dose it, or ingest it. You don't know what it's going to do when it gets inside your body," warns Lt. Hajicek.
At Altru Hospital in Grand Forks, Dr. John Raymond, an emergency room physician told Valley News Live he's seeing what Lt. Hajicek is describing. More and more people coming in high on synthetic drugs. Worst part about it, beside the potential of cardiac arrest, convulsions, and possibly death. It's that doctors don't really have a cure. There's no antidote or reversal drug treatment. These synthetic drugs are just too new.
"It's brand new, new to law enforcement, it's new to health care providers, it's new... and it's killing people," Lt. Hajicek explains.
Kids are being sent to the intensive care unit and even put on life support. Doctors say these drugs have the potential of being deadly, even after just one use. The Grand Forks and East Grand Forks Police Departments say if you have synthetic drugs, incense or bath salts, get rid of them. The momentary high is absolutely a gamble and you could likely be putting your life in danger.
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