Louisiana health officials did not delay in reacting to the recent emergence of 25-I, a new synthetic hallucinogen, which also goes by the names "N-Bomb" or "Smiles."
The drug got passed around like candy during last week’s Voodoo Festival and is responsible for the death of 21-year-old Clayton Orwell of Little Rock, Ark. He ingested one drop of the liquefied drug, and within 30 minutes had slipped into unconsciousness. He died several days later. NOLA.com reports that at least two additional fest-goers checked into area hospitals that weekend due to 25-I overdoses.
According to NOLA.com’s report, here’s what one festival-goer recalls:
"This weekend, it was everywhere," said Jarod Brignac, 24, who also was with Otwell at the festival. "The people had bottles and bottles of it; they were walking through the crowd, trying to make a dime off people at the festival."
The potency of the drug is intense from the onset, said Brignac, who said he has taken 25-I once. At Voodoo and other music festivals, Brignac said, drug dealers do not warn people about the drug’s possible effects. "It’s called research chemicals, and everyone out there in the festival is the guinea pig."
Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, at a press conference Friday, announced it was invoking the state’s emergency ban on the substance.
According to a press release issued Friday by DHH:
25-I is a synthetic drug that can cause brain hemorrhaging, seizures, hallucinations, confusion, paranoia, fear and panic. Over the past three months, the Louisiana Poison Center has received two calls related to 25-I, but health officials suspect more cases have occurred because without advance lab analysis, it is difficult to pinpoint what type of drug is responsible for a drug overdose. Some drug overdoses that medical personnel or law enforcement presumed to be bath salts or other illicit drugs could be 25-1 or another of many synthetic drugs.
This synthetic drug is commonly manufactured in China and India, and is being sold in powder and liquid form online, which is how people access it in the United States.
Along with Virginia, Friday’s ban makes Louisiana the second state to make 25-I illegal. The drug is now included in the state’s list of Schedule I drugs, meaning its possession, manufacture and distribution are punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
Here in Lafayette, Capt. Ted Vincent of the Lafayette Police Department’s Narcotics Division says 25-I has yet to hit the streets. Or if it has, he says, no arrests have resulted.
“We got the intelligence bulletin on this last week, and we know there’s six confirmed cases of overdoses in Arkansas, so I figured something would have come up around here,” Vincent tells IND Monthly. “But with this stuff going for up to $500 a gram, it’s probably too expensive to become a problem here.”
Click here to read more on Otwell’s death.
Read Friday’s press release from DHH here.
MAY 22 This post was written the day after the second line shooting in NOLA, by Brentin Mock. Mock is a friend of Deb "Big Red" Cotton, a blogger who was shot in the back and was seriously injured. It is a raw, emotional piece of writing, something the writer obviously felt he needed to get off his chest. But it raises questions that can't be easily dismissed, and might give some insight into where the source of these events truly is.
MAY 22 In this Baton Rouge Business Report post, Rolfe McCollister considers the privatization of bus service in Baton Rouge. After decades of under-funding, it is a mess, and although a tax (partially) passed last year, improvement hasn't happened yet. McCollister apparently feels it is time to let private business get in on the transit business.
MAY 22 This post on Bayou Buzz by Jeff Crouere urges the defeat of a bill that would grant modest pay increases over the next several years to the state's judges and clerks of court. The state is in no position to fund pay hikes, Crouere argues, with the pay increases costing a total of $9 million over several years. It sends the wrong message to the (proverbial) hard-working people of Louisiana, he says.
MAY 22 The Advocate reports here that State Treasurer John Kennedy is complaining about a meeting of the corporation that oversees the state's tobacco settlement. The Governor wanted it restructured, and he has some support, but not a lot. The corporation agreed with his plan, but Kennedy didn't, and it appears that the meeting was noticed in a manner completely different than that of all previous meetings. Kennedy's given to hyperbole, but in this case the fish don't smell too fresh.
MAY 22 In this Advocate story, Carencro Police Chief Carlos Stout says the recent federal indictment of a strip club owner is all wrong. The indictment alleges that drugs and prostitution went on with impunity because club staff made arrangements with "local" police. Stout says it never happened, and while his cops do work security in the parking lot, they're not allowed inside.
MAY 22 This amusing post in DIG Baton Rouge recounts an ad that ran on Craig's List recently; the advertiser was seeking tenants for a Beauregard Town house. He knew his market, and wrote an ad that the most ironical hipster couldn't resist. Apparently, he really did know his market, because the ad worked like a charm.
MAY 22 In this post in The Lens, Mark Moseley comments on the rhetoric Gov. Jindal employed in trying to save his tax "reform" package. One interesting point concerns Jindal's use of his brother, Nikesh, in a little story. Nikesh left Louisiana because of his inability to get a decent job, the story goes, but the story won't hold water: Nikesh lives in DC, which has an income tax level comparable to Louisiana, Moseley says. If income taxes caused the dismal situation, it should exist in DC too. Right?
MAY 22 This post by columnist John Maginnis traces the trajectory of the bill that would fund construction at community and technical colleges -- and bypass the Board of Regents and traditional higher ed funding mechanisms. Sure, it will bust the legislature's self-imposed debt limit, but some leges feel that there's more need (because there is more growth) in the community and technical college area than in the university area, he says.
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