Smiles: Not always the best medicine

Authorities arrived at a house party in Minnesota last March to find one dead and ten in need of hospitalization after an apparent overdose on the psychedelic designer drug known as 2C-1, or “smiles”. Last July, this drug and many other designer substances became Schedule 1 drugs in the Synthetic Drug Abuse Prevention Act of 2012. Schedule 1 substances are illegal to posses, distribute, or manufacture. Though these designer drugs are now banned, they have recently received national attention after a series of reported deaths. Many believe that these drugs will only increase in popularity, especially on college campuses. Though the drug has not yet been publically discovered on Wright State’s campus, Wright State Police Sargent Patrick Ammon would not rule it out in the future. “Like most designer substances, we probably will see it at some point because it is relatively new to the scene,” said Ammon. The psychedelic drug is similar to a combination of MDMA (ecstasy) and LSD. It usually takes effect within two ours of taking it, and it is normally active for four to twelve hours (depending on the dosage). The drug is normally sold in the form of a white powder, though it has also been pressed into tablets. “There are a lot of things that make any of these types of substances dangerous. The chemicals in them, the amount used, or even the possible dangers of a person who is under the influence of the substance to others,” Ammon said, “Some of these substances can make people’s behaviors very unpredictable.” The Wright State Police are well aware of the drug, as well as many of the other drugs to recently surface. “When we find out about new substances, we put that information into our safety programming that we do for students so that they know how dangerous these substances are,” said Ammon, “That…is huge in the prevention of people experimenting with new substances.” Ammon also said that 2C-1 is commonly purchased online.