hburgnews.com

Comment from Gxeremio
Time: March 14, 2008, 12:13 pm

I thought about posting this too…there are some credible reports of strawberry-flavored designer meth being seized, but why it’s relevant to our area I’m not sure. It almost seems that drug manufacturers could have gotten the idea from the email. Of all the things I’m on the lookout for as a teacher, this is near the bottom of the list.

Comment from Mike
Time: March 14, 2008, 12:20 pm

Instead of worrying about crap like this, parents should maybe be more concerned about the strawberry flavored violence that is piped into their living rooms on a daily basis. And I’m not even talking about the video games they buy for their kids.

Comment from Emmy
Time: March 14, 2008, 12:35 pm

Interesting, thanks for those links. It seems like this is pretty new, so I wonder if perhaps the e-mail did give them the idea. I personally think this article gives parents a fear over something that isn’t near as concerning as things that as you both have mentioned should be higher on their list.

Comment from Christa
Time: March 14, 2008, 12:44 pm

Gxeremio..what you don’t understand is that it IS relevant to this area. And where the drug use starts is middle school. Isn’t that where you teach? Drug use has always been a huge problem with kids in Harrisonburg and Rockingham Co. You just don’t hear about it because it’s handled in juevenile court or the parents quietly go to outside sources for help for their kids. And Mike, I agree with you whole heartedly, but parents should be worried about both.

Comment from JGFitzgerald
Time: March 14, 2008, 12:48 pm

This reminds me of the stories the sheriff told us in junior high school about cinnamon sticks with LSD on them. Try as we might, we never could figure out where to get them, so we assumed the sheriff was lying, for whatever reasons.

Which is a bit of irony and mild fabrication aimed at pointing out that the DNR has done exactly the opposite of its job. If one kid OD’s on a real drug because this bogus warning made him doubt the real dangers of substance abuse, the DNR will have helped create the danger it is apparently trying to prevent. Rather shamelessly, too.

ETA: FYI.

Comment from bwater resident
Time: March 14, 2008, 12:49 pm

Read…it does exist.

http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20070129/NEWS/101290107

Comment from Emmy
Time: March 14, 2008, 1:09 pm

I agree Joe, and now that it is clear that it does exist I worry about what parents will be looking for. Drugs are a problem, no question about that, but will parents overlook the drugs their kids really are taking because they’re looking for this version?

Comment from Emmy
Time: March 14, 2008, 1:16 pm

I’m reading some things now that are along the lines of the cinnamon sticks that Joe mentioned. Apparently there are no real confirmed accounts of flavored meth, but it is often colored.

http://www.jointogether.org/news/features/2007/meth-ado-about-nothing.html

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_strawberry_meth.htm

Comment from JGFitzgerald
Time: March 14, 2008, 1:26 pm

Beyond misleading parents, it goes to a deeper level. In the area of prevention, education works better than enforcement. False education to increase funding for enforcement turns that on its head.

In the area of journalism, if you want to call it that, consider this paragraph from the DNR story. “He said it’s the first known case in the state. However, he expects more to follow.”

Suppose it had said, “Although he said he expects more to follow, it’s still the only known case in the state.”

Comment from Del
Time: March 14, 2008, 3:18 pm

“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 told Join Together that they have not been able to identify a single confirmed seizure of flavored meth.

“Experts say that there’s a real possibility that local police are confusing colored meth — which is relatively common — with flavored meth….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.”

http://www.jointogether.org/news/features/2007/meth-ado-about-nothing.html

Comment from seth
Time: March 14, 2008, 6:25 pm

i’d never heard of the cinnamon sticks but i remember even as a young child knowing that adults were terrified of acid on temporary tatoos being given to their kids. it’s important to remember that drugs cost money. and while some kids may experiment as early as middle school, no drug dealer worth their salt is going to try to build a customer base of broke juveniles. you’d do better to lay awake at night worrying about what’s in your own medicine cabinet.

Comment from Christa Gitchell
Time: March 14, 2008, 6:47 pm

You hit the nail on the head with your last sentence Seth.

Comment from Windixie
Time: March 14, 2008, 6:57 pm

Well, I’d say you’re being too hard on the writer and using bogus Web sites to refute information that local sources gave him. And that’s ridiculous.
“Snopes.com,” a site about urban legends, is not a news source… and pasting it up like it’s a news bulletin is also misleading and irresponsible.
Look at other news sources and you’ll see the story unfolding elsewhere.. I’m pretty sure USA Today would hold up to Snopes.com…

“The flavored crystals are available in California, Nevada, Washington, Idaho, Texas, New Mexico, Missouri and Minnesota, according to intelligence gathered by Drug Enforcement Administration agents from informants, users, local police and drug counselors, DEA spokesman Steve Robertson says.”

Comment from Emmy
Time: March 14, 2008, 8:02 pm

Well Windixie, we also posted other links that showed that while colored meth has been found, there have been no confirmed seizures of flavored meth. Snopes isn’t a news source, but they do site their sources and you’re welcome to check them out.

Comment from JGFitzgerald
Time: March 14, 2008, 8:25 pm

Windixie,

At the risk of devolving into hairsplitting, the story in the DNR is based on one source, not sources, it hasn’t happened locally, and it’s on top of the front page citing cops, plural, in the headline, as opposed to the singular cop quoted in the story. No argument with the sincerity of the reporter or the officer. But some critical thinking instead of unthinking acceptance was called for here. The only thing that could have improved this story was if the flavored meth had been ingested by a mad cow, according to an anonymous source.

Comment from Del
Time: March 14, 2008, 8:28 pm

“Join Together” is not a bogus website.

“Join Together is a program of the Boston University School of Public Health. Since 1991 it has been the nation’s leading provider of information, strategic planning assistance, and leadership development for community-based efforts to advance effective alcohol and drug policy, prevention, and treatment.”

http://www.jointogether.org/aboutus/whoweare/

“…both the DEA and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy told Join Together that they have not been able to identify a single confirmed seizure of flavored meth.”

Comment from Del
Time: March 14, 2008, 8:50 pm

Here’s another article from the National Association of Public Health Policy:

http://www.naphp.org/index.php/fuseaction/magazine.article/articleid/67/

“A chemist friend of mine pointed out another objection to this silly story. The addition of sugar to methamphetamine would apparently break down the methyl group and ruin the meth. Any meth maker who really did this would soon put himself out of business.”

Comment from Del
Time: March 14, 2008, 9:27 pm

And looking at this story from another angle, I haven’t been able to find anything online confirming the portion of this story about the “designer meth” supposedly seized in Wytheville, including searching under many possible key words on googlenews, swvatoday.com and the Roanoke Times. Maybe I’ve just missed the story, but at the moment I’m wondering why this public warning would be issued in Harrisonburg but not in Southwest Virginia where the flavored meth was allegedly found.

Comment from David Miller
Time: March 15, 2008, 5:35 pm

It’s called fear “filler”.