Doctor: Some Arizona party drugs being laced with methamphetamine
Mar 7, 2016, 12:01 PM
(AP Photo)
PHOENIX — Users of popular party drugs in Arizona may be getting something entirely different: Pills laced with methamphetamine.
Dr. Frank LoVecchio with the Banner Poison and Drug Information Center said users think they are buying drugs like ecstasy or molly — party drugs that cause euphoric sensations — but are being sold something else.
“We see a huge substitution of, instead of people getting molly, or MDMA on the street that, in reality, its methamphetamine,” he said.
LoVecchio said most users have no idea that they have actually taken methamphetamine rather than a party drug until it’s too late.
“I use that as a teaching point with the young kids that I see that take these drugs and end up in the hospital,” he said. “I say ‘Would you ever take meth?’ And a lot of them say ‘No, I’ve never used meth. I’m not a meth-head.’
“I say, ‘Look, we did all those tests on you and that’s what your body showed.'”
LoVecchio said the bad drugs demonstrate further that illegal substances sold on the street cannot be trusted.
KTAR’s Brian Rackham contributed to this report.