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Drug Fads
It sounds like a recipe for a bellyache: 'strawberry quik' and 'cheese.' Sure enough, these purported new drug fads have been giving prevention experts indigestion, but the agita is mostly over fears that overreacting officials and media could inadvertently cause a trend where none exists -- and that attention on these "flavor of the month" drugs could distract from larger alcohol and other drug problems confronting youth. In February, the Carson
County (Nev.) Sheriff's Department
In March, the Drug
Enforcement Administration Meanwhile, around the same time the national
media began picking up on the
story "Cheese and strawberry quick are classic examples of how
drug traffickers take their poisons and change the
appearance, color, taste or name" to market to teens and
younger children, DEA special agent Steven Robertson told
the Dallas
Morning News Reacting to these stories, lawmakers in the U.S. Senate introduced legislation that would increase penalties for people who sell flavored methamphetamine, and called for "cheese" heroin to be included in the national anti-drug media campaign. Just one small problem: nobody is quite sure that flavored meth actually exists, and even concerned officials in Texas say there's precious little evidence that "cheese" heroin is anything but a local problem.
Flavored meth is somewhat akin to the Loch Ness Monster: everyone has heard of it, but firsthand sightings are hard to track down and verify. Various media reports around the U.S. have raised the alarm about the dangers of this new drug, but invariably concede that no cases have been reported locally. A breathless report from WAVE-TV
Meanwhile, in Evansville, Ind., Kim Dacey of WFIE-TV
The WFIE story quotes Gibson County Sheriff Allen Harmon saying, "One of the things they're using is the powdered strawberry quick mix, chocolate mix that's a powder they put in milk to make it flavored. We've been told they're using that, and melted Lifesavers." In the next breath, however, Harmon adds that the flavored version of the drug hasn't shown up locally. Attempts by Join Together to trace the one seemingly solid report on flavored meth back to its source have not, as of this writing, produced any clarity. Reached on Friday, the Carson County (Nev.) Sherrif's Department could not confirm whether the meth it seized was flavored or just colored. However, both the DEA and the White
House Office of National Drug Control Policy
"There are a lot of people in prevention and law enforcement talking about it, but in terms of actual seizures we haven't seen much," said Tom Riley, a spokesperson for ONDCP. Rojean White, a spokesperson for the DEA, told Join Together that while local DEA agents have heard stories about flavored meth from local law-enforcement colleagues, they "haven't had any" seizures themselves.  Experts say that there's a real possibility that local police are confusing colored meth -- which is relatively common -- with flavored meth. Tom McNamara, a meth trainer and special-projects coordinator for the Southern Illinois Drug Task Force Group, told Join Together that meth made from Sudafed or some generic versions of the drug will have a light-pink color because of the dye used in the pills. Moreover, he said, meth made from anhydrous ammonia treated with GloTell -- a chemical marker designed to discourage thefts -- will be bright pink. The drug also can appear greenish or blue. "We've had that forever," said McNamara of colored meth, whereas his inquiries about flavored meth have yielded nothing. "The warnings are well-intended, but they have no substance," he said. Jeanne Cox, executive director of the Meth
Project Foundation
"We are all still trying to figure out what's going on with strawberry meth and if it really exists," said Cox. The lingering uncertainty didn't stop Sens. Dianne
Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) from
introducing the "Saving
Kids from Dangerous Drugs
Act
"This bill will send a strong and clear message to drug dealers -- if you target our children by peddling candy-flavored drugs, there will be a heavy price to pay," said Feinstein. "Flavored meth -- with child-friendly names like Strawberry Quick -- is designed to get people to try it a few times. It's all about hooking young people, and we have to stop this practice before it grows any further. So, this legislation will increase the criminal penalties for anyone who markets candy-flavored drugs to our youth -- by imposing on them the same enhanced penalties applied to dealers who distribute drugs to minors." Contacted by Join Together, a spokesperson for Feinstein said that the legislation was in response to reports from DEA and ONDCP, including a letter from drug czar John Walters that -- again -- alludes to flavored meth without confirming its existence. "In the case of flavored/colored methamphetamine, local law enforcement, local and national media, communities and schools should be commended on bringing attention to this problem," Walters wrote to Feinstein on June 4. "ONDCP will closely monitor all available information about this issue to determine appropriate steps with regard to emerging trends and patterns of use."
Unlike strawberry meth, there is no doubt that so-called
"cheese heroin" exists. Drug dealers have long cut black-tar
heroin with diphenhydramine to sell it in powdered form,
according to Jane C. Maxwell, Ph.D., a senior researcher at
the Gulf
Coast Addiction Technology Transfer
Center
However, Maxwell said that the recent national media
coverage on "cheese" could actually make the problem worse.
"While we have not seen adolescents starting use of cheese
heroin other than in Dallas, my Community
Epidemiology Work Group
Suzanne Wills of the Drug
Policy Forum "We must work now to crack down on this lethal drug before it spreads further and destroys the lives of more young people," Cornyn said. "Raising awareness of the dangers of 'cheese' heroin is critical in the effort to stamp it out ... News reports indicate that young people begin using 'cheese' because they wrongly believe the drug is not 'really' heroin and is, therefore, not as dangerous. A public awareness campaign is key to correcting this misconception and reversing the tide of this dangerous new drug." Wills said that Cornyn's bill, like the media hype, has the potential to turn a purely local problem into a national one. "DEA agent Steve Robertson says cheese heroin is confined to the Dallas region but, 'it wouldn't take long to spread,' she recently wrote to Cornyn. "It won't take long at all if the drug czar's National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign gets hold of it." ONDCP also is wary of Cornyn's proposal. "Cheese is a
significant threat in Dallas and one that needs to be dealt
with aggressively," agency spokesperson Jennifer de Vallance
told the Dallas
Morning News
Addiction experts also worry that national concern about a phantom "flavored meth" epidemic distracts from well-established problems with youth alcohol and other drug use -- and overlooks the very real marketing of flavored alcohol and tobacco products to kids. "Alcohol and tobacco manufacturers have used sweeteners to trap young people into using their products, so it's no surprise there may be stories about illicit drug makers trying the same technique," said David Rosenbloom director of Join Together. "We need to be vigilant, but the real and present danger that parents and policymakers must act on are the alcohol and tobacco companies peddling sweetened drinks and cigarettes to our children." "We just don't want this to distract from the real problems out there," said the Meth Foundation Project's Cox. McNamara, the Illinois meth law-enforcement trainer, added, "The concern I have is that there will be a situation where people get all excited about something that didn't happen, and won't get involved when something serious does happen." ONDCP's Riley told Join Together that he recently got a strawberry-meth alert from a Washington, D.C., area school. "I've never gotten anything from them about alcohol or marijuana," he said. "Those are the substances that have, by far, the largest impact on teens." Source: GloTell photograph courtesy of
The
Center for Environmental Health and
Safety. www.jointogether.org/news/features/2007/meth-ado-about-nothing.html
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Meth Ado About Nothing? Flavored Meth and Cheese
Heroin Stories Smack of Fearmongering
eported seizing a quantity of what was described as
strawberry-flavored methamphetamine, quickly dubbed
"strawberry quick" after a container of Strawberry Quik
drink mix was reportedly found at a meth lab. "Strawberry
Quick is popular among new users who snort it because the
flavoring can cut down on the taste. Teenagers who have been
taught meth is bad may see this flavored version as less
harmful," the Nevada Department of Public Safety warned.
(DEA) echoed the warning, and reports spread about meth
being flavored with chocolate, cola, and other flavors. In a
widely circulated story in USA Today, a DEA spokesperson
said the informants told drug agents that flavored meth
could be found in at least nine states.