Public notice: strawberry meth targeting kids
Published by Dean April 30th, 2007 in News.MonticelloLive recently received a copy of a letter which was sent to
According to a recent USA Today report, crystal meth use has been on the decrease in recent years, and dealers and manufacturers have had to resort to new tactics in order to market the drug. Because methamphetamine is commonly white or brownish and bitter-tasting, the pink color and sweet taste make it more appealing to younger children, authorities say. Meth cooks have also been known to manufacture the drug in flavors such as cola and chocolate.
In a report aired on
According to an item from a Missouri TV news report, it hasnt taken long for this latest threat to spread to this part of the country. Parents and teachers are urged to educate themselves and talk to their children about the dangers associated with drugs.
Possibly Related:
I would also like to further urge parents to talk to their children about not on ly “not taking “”candy”" from strangers” but to not take any candy from friends either……Any child may believe that this new form of drug is their favorite “pop rocks” and share with their friends.Lets keep our children safe and drug free.
Please keep in mind that “strawberry meth” looks like rock candy not pop rocks. There is a distinct difference. Rock candy looks like crystals while pop rocks actually resemble nerds or small colored pebbles. It might be helpful to tell your children that real rock candy although colored is still see through. The photos that I have seen of “strawberry meth” are not. If someone offers them rock candy that is not see through they should not take it and obviously if they do not know the person they should not take anything. I work for a chain of candy stores and we currently carry rock candy but after the developments with this we are considering discontinuing it. If this helps anyone at all I feel good about writing it.
This is way overblown-there has been NO confirmed strawberry flavored meth by a forensic lab known at this time-pink or light red meth is the result of using sudefed it’s generics or anhydrous ammonia treated with glotell a theft deterrent chemical that turns people and anythig else it contacts pink-including the resulting meth-you take meth for the high not for the taste-
mac you are correct. way way way overblown. having been a narcotics officer for 14 years i read the chain letter that was forwarded around and it struck me as odd how we are so bored with the problems facing us everyday that we feel the urge to invent new ones because we havent solved the old ones. i must say that there is more of need to tel your kids not to smoke pot or steal your dads beer than to worry about strawberry meth. and i mean really. do you think that someone who is sitting in a trailer in the middle of the woods missing most of their teeth is coming up with marketing plans for meth? 99.9% of meth cooks in our area cook for personal consumption and only sell enough to get money to cook more. strawberry meth. please!
wow guys. did you click the links to the TV news clips that are in the above article? were the news media in san francisco, nevada and missouri being hoaxed by drug experts and law enforcement? maybe gimme a break should be chastising his fellow narc officers for perpetrating this hoax on TV news reports around the country.
Prior to that submission I did click on the links and I along with many others have chastised fellow (inexperienced) ‘narc officers’ on this topic. if you missed it, but some of the news, especially from san francisco- may be a little over dramatized. news being not-so-accurate these days is why we have such interesting blogs. in no way am i saying meth isnt a problem im just saying the flavored meth story isnt the most pressing issue facing drug enforcement and there were other topics that should have garnered WAY more attention. And FYI, the rare but intentional coloring or marking of a controlled substance is usually so that the product can be identified by users or those intending to purchase it. i did enjoy your post dean. it gives us a chance to sort through media hype and misinformation.
Oh, it’s real. I found some of it in my husband’s room when he was gone fishing for the weekend. Had it tested and the law enforcement couldn’t figure out what it was either. So we shrugged it off as nothing. That was in September 2006 in the Midwest.
Here it is July 2007 and my husband’s temper and moods have escalated beyond you can imagine. I separated and moved out 4 months ago. I know he’s in there deep down hiding behind all of that evil.
We’ve been together for 16 years and married for 9 years and this crap is trying to destroy our marriage!!
It destroys everything in its path. There is no mercy. God help us all! It is the “devil’s drug.”
please go to jointogetther.org -theres been no verified strawberry meth found by dea or anyone else
Mac,
What about this March 2007 story on that site?
However, ccording to a June 22 article on that site:
Most of the cases seem to stem from the Carson County (Nev.) sheriff’s office report of the substance’s discovery. Others have also reported it, but details admittedly do remain sketchy. At the time of this article, however, national news media were just beginning to report on it, and it did appear to be a verifiable story. Best we can now say is that the word is still out.
okay folks. i promise ya- if we have an outbreak of strawberry meth it will be right after john mccain wins the republican nomination, al gore shuts up about global warming, the accountant guy that goes off on those rants in the letter to the editor part of our paper gets writers cramp and wal mart gets enough checkers at busy shopping times. it aint happenin. meth cooks, specifically the MDTO’s (mexican drug trafficking organizations) have been known to COLOR not FLAVOR their dope to DISTINGUISH it from other MDTO’s dope BUT THATS IT. Again, we should worry more about our children drinking beer from dads ice chest than this.
So, we are really going to sit and debate whether or not there really is such a thing as strawberry meth? Shouldn’t we all just take a step back and realize that even if there is NO such thing as of yet, and the reporters ARE getting it all wrong–There are still OTHER drugs that ARE out there and available to youor child.
So…
If there is some stupid chain letter floating around that will make us take the time to remind ourselves of the dangers our children are facing–then so be it. If it takes some stupid reporter not doing their job correctly to remind us, as a society, that our children are being targeted as the up-and-coming drug users– then so be it.
Stop worrying about whether or not it exists and take this opportunity to go look up some more information on how to speak with your children– regardless of their age– about not only saying “No” and reporting it, but talking about the effects of it and how to prevent themselves from getting into situations where it is around.
Take the time to simply TALK to your children. That’s something as a society that gets more and more neglected over the years. Maybe because we are all wasting our time reading chain letters about phantom drugs or maybe not.
So when someone can explain to me why it would be so terrible for anyone to panic over something that may or may not be real, but is causing enough worry to discuss drugs with our children–contact me.
Needless to say, I’m sure I won’t be hearing from any of you any time soon.
Certainly the need to talk with your children about real dangers that unfortunately abound in their world is absolutely vital to their safety and wellbeing-warning them against only rumor may,perhaps, minimize the impact your warnings toward the real dangers that they are expoesd to far to often-those that are far too real and far to obvious
Good points voice and mac. See my earlier posts on this topic. I agree that we should talk to our kids, we should just talk to them about good behavior period and not doing drugs period. I suggest to you that we talk to our kids about drugs that they will encounter, not things they wont. For example, i teach my son to stay away from snakes and dangerous animals, because we have those here. Some bad, some good, but better safe than sorry. I dont tell him to stay away from tigers specifically because Im not worried about him running into any of those. I guess my point is lets come across to our children as knowledgable about drugs or children will see that. when mom is talking about strawberry meth but doesnt know what the marijuana seeds in the dryer are, there is a perception by the child of when the parent knows what is going on and when they dont. If a parent wants to know more about drugs, call the police department or the drug task force offices and ask to speak to one of the narcotics officers. they will be glad to help you.
I’m bothered that a conversation as to whether a particular news item is accurate can be dismissed as “OK as long as something good comes of it.”
There is no doubt drugs are bad. Nor is there any doubt that an asteroid impacting the Earth would be horrific. The question is: Do you want news sources, warning e-mails, and blogs filled with made up stories as long as they serve the general good? That’s not what news is about. News is about relaying the facts. When the news media ignore that in favor of ratings, then they diminish their credibility, which is probably why there is so much debate about Global Warming.
Picture this: You wake up to a news report that screams “Killer asteroid expected to impact Earth tomorrow!” only to discover the story is false. Do you then say, “Well, sure it’s false. But it got us talking about it.” Or do you say, “Why would anyone in their right mind write a story like that without checking their facts?”
I hope most people would opt for the latter.
Mac and Gimme a Break are absolutely right in their statements about the whole Strawberry Meth thing. Pink meth with a strawberry flavor has been found , but it doesn’t represent an outbreak or new fad. There is also no evidence that flavored drugs are being marketed to kids. And this is where Voice of Reason is correct: Although this hasn’t happened, it’s worth noting that drug dealers will stop and nothing and, having possibly seen the story about the “flavored” meth, might actually start the trend. But lets be sure that the facts don’t get lost in all of our good intentions.
amen!
Obviously this thing has been kicked, beaten and stomped into the ground by now, but I wanted to address the allegation that this article was written with an attitude of “it doesn’t matter if it was accurate, as long as something good came out of it.”
When Jeff Noble was the owner of, and I was a writer for, Monticello Live, he sent me an email with a scanned copy of the letter that was received by Camden School District. Since it should be obvious to most folks that writing for ML was not a full time job, nor a paying one, it wasn’t a situation where I could personally interview the sources used in the article. The next best thing was to research it online, and if anyone who has read and commented on this article has chased down the links provided, they would see that the information was obtained from major news outlets around the country. These sources, both in print media and on TV news reports all cited law enforcement personnel in places like California, Nevada and Missouri.
Also, while the “flavored” aspect of these reports have indeed turned out to be somewhat dubious, snopes.com reports that as recently as October of this year, law enforcement in North Carolina have been claiming to have confiscated crystal meth that both looks like strawberry candy and smells like strawberries.
Additionally, the non-law enforcement source cited in this article and interviewed on San Francisco’s CBS news affiliate, Dr. Alex Stalcup is a widely acclaimed expert in methamphetamine addiction. Here are some links where his credentials as a physician and drug addiction counselor, as well as his full resume may be viewed:
http://www.nltc.com/staff.html
http://www.nltc.com/drstalcupcurricu.html
While I completely understand the the questions that have been raised by those who have been commenting on this article, the fact that the sources cited were mostly local and state police themselves, leaves us all in quite a predicament when trying to ascertain the accuracy of any “expert” opinion coming from the law enforcement community.
So even though this story could not be worked as thoroughly as if written for a national publication, it was certainly not just thrown out there to see if any of it would stick to the proverbial wall or not.
Dean-appreciate your comments and understand your position-this is certainly nothing to take lightly- however-the evidence that a single confirmed exhibit of strawberry has been not been found in any state or federal lab still leads to this matter being blown out of proportion via wellmeaning Email warnings,and a press that jumped on the hysteria bandwagon-I know Alex Stalcup and his background -I’ll bet that he hasn’t seen any strawberry meth either–methamphetamine and it’s far reaching effects is the problem -not a product that has yet to be confirmed existent-and tales of strawberry quick [which if mixed with meth would kill an intraveneous user] just take concentration and concern from that real problem-
actually, outstanding responses by both dean and mac. both definately hold merit. however, having been certified as one of the ‘experts’ concerning illegal drug use, distribution, etc. in both state and federal courts, i can assure you that the type of analysis provided by Mr. Stalcup and that provided by those of us in the field are two different things as you well know. i would merely submit to you that stories such as this, while well intending, often invoke more curiousity than deterrent.
As far as ‘expert’opinions go, you can have two experts with contrasting opinions and both be right- or rather feasible. it is up to the person to take the totality of the circumstances and decide which explanation is the correct one, just as in the matter of false confessions, where experts will tell you that a false confession is littered with poor detail and vague and only mild concessions of guilt, whereas a separate expert may tell you that people who confess to terrible crimes often give the same descriptions as a false confession in order to minimize the incident in an effort to basically put the incident behind them. Again, thanks for the great posts by both of you as this type of discussion is whats needed so many topics we deal with in society.