cannabisnews.com: U.S. Agents Put Focus on Internet Drug Buys! 





U.S. Agents Put Focus on Internet Drug Buys! 
Posted by FoM on January 08, 1999 at 06:45:23 PT

TREDYFFRIN A $100 Internet purchase that netted 50 grams of a legal substance found in over-the-counter cough medicines has left federal authorities scrambling to find out how much of the drug and others are being marketed by computer to teenagers and others.
Large amounts of a legal substance bought on the Web sent four teenagers to a hospital Wednesday.The substance is dextromethorphan, or DXM. It caused four Conestoga High School sophomore girls to become ill on Wednesday after they ingested the white powder, which two other students gave them during lunch, according to police. While DXM is neither a new drug nor an illegal one, the ability to buy it in large quantities through the Internet raises serious concerns, authorities said yesterday."The access people have to the Internet within the security of homes often thwarts us," said Larry McElynn, a special agent with the Philadelphia office of the Drug Enforcement Administration. "It is such a private access that it does away with the need for an open-air drug market and makes it tough for police to find out what's being sold until something like this happens."Officials with the federal Food and Drug Administration and the Pennsylvania Health Department said they too have started investigating how easily this drug can be bought using a computer."This is the type of thing that would be of concern to us because the nature of the product is that it is sold in bulk," said Brad Stone, a spokesman with the FDA. When taken in large quantities, DXM can cause stomach pain, cramping, dizziness and vomiting, and may result in coma and brain damage. Those touting its use as a recreational drug claim it gives the feeling of being drunk and high at the same time.The four girls -- a 16-year-old from Berwyn and three 15-year-olds, from Wayne, Devon and Radnor -- were treated at Paoli Memorial Hospital Wednesday after complaining of shortness of breath and a racing heart.Charges have not been filed against the two boys, ages 15 and 16 from Berwyn, but police said the in vestigation continues. All of the students involved have been suspended from school for five days until hearings can be scheduled, school officials said. They said the boys could be expelled.Chester County District Attorney Anthony Sarcione said he is awaiting test results from the state police crime lab in Lima to see if the DXM substance could have been mixed with an illegal drug."Once we know what this drug is comprised of, we can determine what the potential is for applying criminal statutes," Sarcione said. "We also plan to be interviewing all of the medical personnel who treated the kids and ask if these girls were ever put in any serious harm because of this drug."McElynn said agents with the DEA's Washington office spent the day following an Internet trail to several merchandisers of the DXM drug, with advertisements on different Web sites. Beyond that, he said, the question is how the sellers get the drug from manufacturers.Some of those Web sites offer novices an introduction to DXM with sections titled "Getting the Most Out of DXM" and "General Tips on Enjoying the DXM Experience."For the more experienced user, the Web sites provide an overview of the types of activities that are conducive to DXM "trips," including "What Tools Can Enhance the DXM Experience." Suggestions include group tripping and swimming. This is not the first time students have used the Internet to get their hands on potentially dangerous substances, school officials said yesterday.Last year, four Middletown, Bucks County, teenagers bought chemicals over the Internet and used a recipe posted on a Web site to concoct the drug gamma hydroxybutyrate, commonly described as a "date rape" drug.There have been other incidents around the nation, including the 1997 arrest of a student in Irvine, Calif., for mixing drugs using a recipe from the Internet. DEA officials say anyone with a computer can purchase drugs over the Internet. One DXM site offers credit card purchases, while another has posted an 800 number. "With the Internet there are so many new possibilities," said McElynn. "But just as the new information and easy access is good for us, it is also good for drug traffickers."Gary Gardner, a pharmacist and drug program specialist with the Pennsylvania Health Department, said teenagers have been drinking cough syrup for years in attempts to get high.Because of the tendency to abuse it, in 1994, a group of Chambersburg parents lobbied the health department to put some cough syrups on a controlled substance list, Gardner said. "There are no controls over it, so if someone got in the checkout line and tried to buy one-half-dozen bottles, no one would stop them," Gardner said.The Health Department refused the request of the parents' group, Gardner said."But even though cough syrup has been a problem for us, I have never heard of people buying this substance over the Internet. That is something new," he said.Andrew Demarest, a senior deputy attorney general who is providing legal advice in the Conestoga case, said getting the drug regulated could create more problems than it would solve. "DXM is used in a gadzillion medicines now," he said. "I'm not sure whether that would be the best route to go with this.""This is a perfectly legitimate product, but there is a public safety issue when medicines are sold in an anonymous fashion over the Internet. It seems to me that could be fraught with danger over time."
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Comment #4 posted by Jo mama on August 23, 2001 at 22:46:22 PT:
This is all bull-shit
I was looking on the internet to buy DXM, but I can find is this pussy-ass legal shit! Bitching about kids dying on DXM and shit. DAMN IT! Why doesn,t the government just legalize it to eighteen year-olds. The I could have my nineteen year old sister purchase it.But NOOOOO kids are fuckin overdosing and dying from all of these drugs that the DAMNunited states have legalized.People die from DXM, but not fucking bud. just legalize bud, okay?
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Comment #3 posted by Magic_bus on May 09, 2001 at 17:01:05 PT
DXM
Dxm is phun... but I would not want to be around ppl at school on it... it is like you are tore down drunk but tripping to... verry powerful trip.. I love lsd and shrooms but I have only done that stuff once and probably only 4 more times.
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Comment #2 posted by afraid 2 use it on June 13, 1999 at 23:54:03 PT
legal drugs vs. mj
Here in la. date rape drugs have become the rage as well as ectasy and achohol binges that have resulted in deaths all because the kids are looking for a way to get high. There scared to get busted for mj, but don't seem to fear getting caught trying to rape a woman after she is passed out on ghb. does this make sense to anyone? I would think this would especially bother women, especially moms. 
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Comment #1 posted by UaN on January 08, 1999 at 08:10:19 PT
Legal Drugs vs Marijuana?????
Well, I am not surprised that it was a legal drug that almost killed these kids.....now, if they could have gotten pot, over the internet, there would be no way to overdose on it.....but since it is illegal, then kids will always try to get high on legal DANGEROUS drugs.....These legal drugs are the ones killin everybody...the only time marijuana kills is when the cops play Bobby Bad Ass and shoot someone over marijuana.....other than that I have never heard of anyone dying from marijuana..... 
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