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Bumping Blurred Lines

Bumping Blurred Lines

by | Jan 31, 2023 | Buzz, February 2023

The high has gotten higher—and deadlier. If you thought that weed in the ’70s was a crisis, buckle up. We take a look at what people are using to get high, to get by and what can kill you.

“Depends on the drugs. Some are easier to get than others. I could get shrooms and coke. Everyone has edibles.” Unsettling—but perhaps not shocking—words from the mouths of youths. This is what 17-year-old Wake County high-schooler James Olsen* nonchalantly told us when we asked him about his access to drugs. “If I wanted heroin it would be easy but expensive,” he says. “Weed is easy and inexpensive.” That same ease of access Olsen describes tracked across every teen, college student and in-the-know-adult we queried. 

And about that marijuana—this ain’t your grandma’s weed. If we’re talking THC—the compound in weed known for the high—well, vaping the oil is de rigueur… and way more potent. According to a recent study released in the Journal of the American Medical Association looking at cannabis consumption: “It was surprising the magnitude of difference between equal doses of smoking vs. vaping,” where the latter “can produce drastically different impairment.”

And if we’re talking the smokable variety, “fentanyl is used to lace weed and cocaine,” Olsen tells us. That trend is echoed by Raleigh Police Department Sgt. Ken Barber: “We are seeing cocaine being cut with fentanyl on a regular basis.” Weed is also being laced with ketamine—a party drug that is particularly popular among teens and young adults. Read: We’re not in Dazed and Confused any more. More like an episode of Euphoria (a show whose sheer existence speaks to the gravity of the issue—not to mention it’s about drugged-out sexualized high schoolers).

Per the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, rainbow fentanyl—aka rainbow-hued candy-esque fentanyl fashioned after SweeTarts—is being used to target young people across the country. According to a recent public health alert, these pills “look like candy but are really a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine.” Read: deadly.

All that to say, it’s a messy drugscape. At the same time all of these drugs are ramping up, pot is being decriminalized across the nation, and a host of drugs (think ecstasy) are being legalized across the land for therapeutic use. Here, from farm (think herbs, plants) to pharm (opioids) to street (coke, LSD, MDMA, etc.), we dive into the drugscape.

Street Drugs

Sgt. Barber says that “cocaine and crack use remain steady,” but, despite its rise in popularity—and price—the drug is more dangerous than ever. A recent report from Vice found that deaths involving cocaine have increased every year in the U.S. since 2013, and peaked with a new record of nearly 25,000 last year. This is largely due to dealers intentionally selling cocaine spiked with fentanyl.

Euphoria fans might remember the chilling scene in season 1 in which the show’s main character Rue (Zendaya) is forced to take fentanyl by a violent drug dealer, which almost immediately knocks her unconscious. 

While Rue does eventually wake up,  that’s not always the case when it comes to fentanyl. Mac Miller and Prince are just two celebrities whose deaths were linked to the opioid, which is highly addictive and is also often mixed with such other drugs as heroin, methamphetamine and MDMA (aka Molly, ecstasy, E, Beans and Adams).

Locally, 28-year-old Moore County resident Nathanial Lynn Rush was arrested in December and charged with felony death by distribution. That law—implemented by Gov. Cooper in December 2019 in response to the rising number of opioid-related deaths in the state—allows law enforcement to prosecute dealers for drugs that cause an overdose. The 23-year-old victim had bought drugs from Rush on the day of his death in July 2021, and an autopsy report showed he died from a mix of methamphetamine and fentanyl. 

With fentanyl-laced drugs on the rise, drug-user 28-year-old Dan Knox* says, “Honestly, I wouldn’t touch drugs these days without testing them.” 

HERBALS

Kanna

“Like MDMA, kanna has mood-elevating and anti-anxiety effects. Some say it also helps them think more clearly. And sex on kanna is said to be comparable to sex on MDMA: Some describe it as sex in ‘HD mode.’” So says a recent report by Vice regarding the debated effects of the trendy new herb kanna (aka sceletium tortuosum). 

The native South African psychoactive plant usually taken for its calming effects (a “heart opener” that gives you all the good feels) has been gaining plenty of attention—and traction—in light of its Molly-like effects. “An hour in, you feel like you’re full-on rolling,” a Vice reporter found by surprise on an LA retreat, “elated and full of ideas, wanting to shower everyone with words of affection, and you can’t stop grinding your jaw. When I told the leader… she said, ‘yes, it’s natural MDMA.’”

One-hundred percent legal—though the Food & Drug Administration has distribution standards—kanna is being sold in vape, powder, capsule, and flower (chew, smoke, snuff) form—and some manufacturers are selling it as a supplement. Zembrin mood booster, for example, contains 25 mg of kanna—which, according to reports, is enough to produce a high, as people can begin feeling mild effects at doses as low as 5 mg, with 25 to 50 mg considered an intoxicating dose. These psychotropic effects are thanks to its two inherent psychoactive alkaloids: mesembrine and tortuosamine. 

Dr. Paolo Mannelli, a psychiatrist and associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University, agrees kanna can render euphoric effects at higher doses. “Essentially the supplement just makes the world a really happy place according to users—hence like the effects of MDMA (ecstasy).”

But in spite of its likeness to MDMA, kanna is reportedly safe—and some research even suggests it could prove beneficial for mood, sleep, cognitive ability and anxiety. The hitch is when it gets mixed with other substances—or is taken in super-high doses (100 mg or more). An OD on the compound will likely just result in an upset stomach, while mixing with other substances—specifically MDMA, SSRI antidepressants, MAO inhibitors or 5HTP, according to the Vice report—can put “you at risk for serotonin syndrome, an excess of serotonin in your brain that can lead to overheating, rapid heartbeat, shaking and, in extreme cases, death.”

Kratom

When we first dropped our story on kratom in November 2021, it broke the internet. Beyond going viral, the story also elicited a mixed bag of divisive reactions from both sides—those who witnessed kratom abuse vs. kratom advocates/users who went as far as to claim the supplement had literally saved their lives.

While we’ll leave the debate to the internet, as we prepared this feature, national news broke of a Georgia dad who unexpectedly collapsed at dinner and died, and—wait for it—the family suit blames a kratom supplement. Worth a Google—the suit is not an anomaly. … In October, parents (also in Georgia) sued after alleging their son died from taking kratom. And, back in June 2021, a 39-year-old mother of four died after consuming a kratom product by Grow LLC. And the list goes on…

For a quick refresh, while kratom is now being taken as a party drug, people have been using what has been dubbed by some as “herbal heroin” for years as a substitute for opioids, especially by those looking to quit, according to Dr. Mannelli. 

And Mannelli has seen kratom use evolve to abuse: “We have treated people with kratom abuse with buprenorphine, which is the typical suggested treatment for opioid dependence for people who use prescription opioids or heroin. So kratom is, I’d say, a reasonable drug to avoid because it doesn’t give you any safer alternative for treatment than any opioid.”

PSYCHEDELICS

Hallucinogens as Therapy

A recently published study in The New England Journal of Medicine—the largest-ever trial of its kind on synthetic psilocybin mushrooms—found a single dose alleviated severe depression. 

The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies out of California has also been studying MDMA as a treatment for anxiety, eating disorders and PTSD. Jonathan Lubecky, a U.S. Armed Forces retiree who lived in North Carolina for about 13 years, took part in a MAPS MDMA-assisted therapy trial in 2014. He had been struggling with PTSD since returning from a deployment to Iraq in 2006, and despite multiple treatments—exposure therapy, talk therapy, pills—he attempted suicide five times. After just three MDMA sessions, he felt restored. 

“It changed my life. It’s the sole reason that my stepson has a father instead of a folded flag,” says Lubecky, who is now a veteran and governmental affairs liaison for MAPS and head of Lubecky Strategic Direction, a boutique communications firm focusing on psychedelics. 

“The majority of people who are using this nowadays and the interest that it’s coming from isn’t because people want to see trees get wavy; they want to alleviate some of the stress—issues that come with being alive,” says Raleigh resident Brad Fields*, who has been suffering from depression and PTSD since he was a teenager and has also benefited from psychedelics. 

Now in his 40s, Fields says traditional antidepressants stopped “doing what they were supposed to,” so he went a different route. For a time, he experimented with LSD and shrooms—though therapists advised him on how to go about them safely—and for about a year, he tried ketamine-assisted therapy, which is legal.

“I feel like it was kind of a game-changer,” he says, noting that each psychedelic produced a different feel. “I would recommend it. I think people should still do their due diligence to inform themselves, educate themselves on the risks and what they’re getting into, but I think it’s definitely a treatment worth pursuing.” 

“I was raised in the D.A.R.E. era where you had good drugs and bad drugs,” adds Lubecky. “Well, good drugs gave us the opioid epidemic and bad drugs healed my PTSD, so I think we need to reevaluate those definitions and how we look at substances.” 

Decriminalization of Shrooms

Once thought of as a drug hippies ate to trip on, “magic mushrooms” (aka psilocybin) have earned mass appeal. While Sgt. Barber says they don’t see a lot of reports from use, shrooms remain “popular around college campuses and college-aged people.” And, according to recent reports, shroom chocolates are a thing–now considered a “casual” party drug like alcohol.

Casual enough for well-known mycologist (aka fungi expert) and author Paul Stamets to recently blow up Twitter with the claim: “Let’s be adults about this. These are no longer ‘shrooms.’ These are no longer party drugs for young people. … Psilocybin mushrooms are nonaddictive,
life-changing substances.” 

Bold, sure. But maybe it’s all for good reason, as according to the 2022 Global Drug Survey, “magic mushrooms” are the safest recreational drug. Of a study of 12,000+ people who reported taking magic mushrooms, only 0.2% of them had to seek emergency medical care, a rate at least 5 times lower than that of MDMA, LSD and cocaine, and 3 times lower than weed. 

All this is to say it’s no surprise shrooms are being decriminalized. Studies have shown that psilocybin mushrooms can help treat anxiety, depression and even addiction in some cases (magic or science?!). Of course, take too many and you can definitely have a bad “trip” and experience panic attacks—though the likelihood of ending up in the hospital is still low, with the exception of accidental injury. 

*Asterisked names have been changed to protect sources’ identity

  • 75% of Ketamine users are reportedly 12-25 years old already in the U.S. 
  • Ketamine (aka Special K, K-hole, K-land, Kit Kat, among others) is surging in popularity in Europe and predicted to jump the pond… 
  • 40–80% The extraordinarily high levels of THC found in marijuana concentrates (aka “oil” used in vapes), which is up to 4 times higher than that found in top-shelf marijuanas (~20%)
  • 2024 The year by which the Biden administration anticipates MDMA and psilocybin (shrooms) being approved for designated breakthrough therapies
  • 10,000+ varieties of mushrooms 
  • 3+ Decades China and Japan have been using functional shrooms—in addition to standard therapies—to treat cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute
  • 2018 Year Farm Bill bill introduced, including loopholes making some delta-9 products legal
  • ≤ 0.3% The dry weight of delta-9 THC required for it to be legal—and only if derived from hemp plants, as the compound can be found in both hemp and marijuana plants
  • 455 The Senate Bill passed in 2022 to keep CBD and hemp-related products legal in the state 
  • 107,600+ Drug overdose deaths occurred in the U.S. in 2021, according to provisional data from the CDC 
  • ~75% Of OD deaths in 2021 in the U.S. involved an opioid
  • 37 States have medical marijuana laws, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
  • 21 States, plus DC, have legalized it for recreational use
  • 27 States, including NC, have fully or partially decriminalized certain possession offenses
  • 2019 Year Denver decriminalized psilocybin, and Oakland, California, decriminalized the use and possession of psilocybin and other natural psychedelics 
  • 2022 Year Coloradans legalized psilocybin in November
  • 2020 Year DC residents voted to decriminalize natural psychedelics, and Oregonians voted to decriminalize the personal use and possession of all drugs 9.22
  • San Fran decriminalized plant-based psychedelics (aka “magic mushrooms”), ayahuasca and peyote in September. The resolution also called for state and federal governments to follow in decriminalizing psychedelics.
Herbal Heroin?

Herbal Heroin?

by | Oct 31, 2021 | Buzz, November 2021

Word on the street is there’s a trendy drug in town (and sweeping the country) that’s dangerously addictive—but 100% legal in NC… and as easy to get here as a pack of smokes or vape juice.

Banned in six states (Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin) for its possible addictive properties, this opioid-like powdery herbal substance—called kratom—has even been classified as a Schedule 1 drug (think heroin, LSD) in Alabama.

Highly controversial—with mixed opinions and ordinances on the overall accessibility and legality of the substance—there seems to be no question that kratom’s side effects can be dangerous. Arguably the “it” party drug, kratom makes for an easy swap for the highly illegal cocaine sniffs and heroin hits that preceded it. 

Pronounced KRAY-tum, the substance is, at its root, a Southeast Asia evergreen tree whose leaves have psychotropic (aka mind-altering) effects, as they contain chemicals that, when ingested—quite frankly—get you high. Lower doses deliver you that stimulating cocaine-like effect, while higher doses (which are reportedly the most popular usage) render an opiate-like high and euphoric effects en masse.

And it’s not a gateway drug. It’s a drug people of all ages and stations are taking (some in very large doses) to get high, or to enhance or alter their high (say from drinking, opioids, other meds)—and it’s even linked to fatal overdoses (though many cases have involved mixing kratom with other substances).

Unregulated, as it’s not approved for any medical use, the dried leaves are sold as powder, capsules, extracts, gum and tea leaves (which some people even smoke) and are usually marked “not for human consumption”—and are known widely as kratom, but also go by such street names as herbal, herbal speedball, thom, ketum, ithang, kakuam, biak and so on. 

One Raleigh resident, Jesse Mosey, thought she had never heard of it by any name when a friend recently passed her a handful (literally) of kratom pills on their way out Downtown. “Here,” he said. “Take these. You’ll feel great.”

She declined—and watched her friend shove the entire handful in his mouth, as did others in their group. Then it got scary. “They were on another wave,” says Mosey. “It slowed them down tremendously. Their reaction time was nonexistent; they were out of their heads with thought process; one of them was throwing up; some itching, sweating … it was basically the same as if they had taken opioids—and they were addicted.”

It wasn’t until an epiphany the next morning that Mosey realized she knew what kratom is—and how prevalent it is. “I asked my brother about it the next day,” she says. “I know a lot of people back home [on the North Carolina coast] who use kratom and didn’t realize it until that night. They are really dependent on it. It’s everywhere.”

Local Natalie Philips has also seen firsthand the dark side of kratom after witnessing her friends’ usage, volume intake and reliance on the substance. “One thing I will not forget is, one time, we were going to brunch, and they took a few spoonfuls–[they] usually only take one or a little more–prior to leaving the house,” she says. … “At the restaurant one friend got so sick—started sweating and looked like she was gonna pass out, before throwing up profusely… afterward, she said she must have OD’d.” 

Given kratom’s key chemical components—the psychoactive mitragynine and the even more-potent 7-hydroxymitragynine—Philips’ surmise makes sense. While there is more mitragynine (a pain reliever traditionally used to treat such common ailments as wounds, fever, muscle soreness) in kratom, 7-hydroxymitragynine is 13 times more potent than morphine and 46 times more potent than mitragynine.

According to the FDA, these kratom compounds bind to mu-opioid receptors in the brain (the same ones activated when you take heroin or pain pills). Ironically, one of kratom’s first known uses—beyond 19th century traditional medicine—was in 1836, to treat an opioid addiction. Kratom has likewise been used for ages in the U.S. as a holistic herbal remedy for chronic or acute pain (think opioid Rx alternative), anxiety or depression, as well as an aid for those battling to overcome an opioid addiction.

And, aye, there’s the rub. Just as kratom has been subbed to replace opioid prescriptions, alleviate heroin withdrawal symptoms, reduce meth intake and more, its very opioid-like effects make it highly addictive—and are what can lead to abuse. 

“I mean, they weren’t running around trying to eat people or anything—but they were just out of it. It’s not right.”

While kratom seems to be picking up in popularity, the controversy, just like the substance, is not new. Back in 2016, Senate Bill 830, sponsored by Republican State Sen. Thomas McInnis, attempted to add kratom to the controlled substance list. But kratom advocates highlighted misleading information within the bill and petitioned against it. Thus, a rewrite was born. House Bill 747, the current state legislation on kratom, exists with only the requirement of age restriction (you must be over the age of 18 to buy it). 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that there have been published cases of kratom exposure associated with psychosis and seizures. On top of this, the Drug Enforcement Agency intended to classify the product as a Schedule 1 drug, but the federal level saw parallels to NC’s own prohibitory hiccup as they faced demonstrations from kratom advocates, and the proposition was halted. 

Over recent years, the fate of this herbal speedball has been in limbo (see timeline below). But the FDA’s current stance reads clear. This May, FDA Acting Commissioner of Food and Drugs Dr. Janet Woodcock tweeted, “There are currently no FDA-approved therapeutic uses for products containing kratom, and the FDA has identified significant safety concerns associated with its use.”

Yet despite the warnings, kratom remains unregulated and seems to be flying largely under the radar… and some people in positions of power continue to resist controlling the substance, as do proponents of either the drug or the freedom of choice.

“I personally do not have a problem with it,” says Philips, despite what she’s witnessed firsthand. “To me, it’s like marijuana—as long as it’s not abused in great forms, then why should it be an issue?“

Local Jeff Campbell, who, too, has witnessed kratom use by friends, echoes the sentiment: “I don’t know of any major side effects, but people should be able to choose what they put in their bodies.” Key words—“know of any major side effects.” 

Mosey disagrees. “It’s so scary to think this is legal,” she says. “I mean, they weren’t running around trying to eat people or anything—but they were just out of it. It’s not right. … You definitely don’t become dependent on marijuana. And people get withdrawals after taking kratom for a period of time.”

To date, while it remains legal in NC, the debate continues—and it looks like it’s high time for some further scientific research and a good old-fashioned PSA.

*All names were changed to protect individuals’ identities.

KRATOM REGULATION TIMELINE

Kratom: 2016

  • DEA announces intent to place Mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine on the Schedule 1 drug list.
  • DC protest opposing the DEA ban, where Botanical Education Alliance Director Travis Lowin declared the DEA “has failed Americans in its efforts to combat the opioid epidemic, and targeting kratom will make the situation worse.”
  • DEA withdraws notice of intent and opens official public comment period.

Kratom: 2017

  • FDA issues public health advisory on kratom.

Kratom: 2018

  • FDA produces evidence of “opioid properties.”
  • DHHS recommends ban on kratom compounds. 

Kratom: 2019

  • The FDA increases warnings to sellers labeling the drug as a supplement that treats health concerns (pain, anxiety, addiction). Only FDA-approved drugs can make such declarations.

Kratom: 2021

  • U.S. Marshalls seize 207,000+ units of dietary supplements containing kratom from a manufacturer in Florida at the FDA’s request, worth $1.3 million.