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Subscribe to RSSPolice say funeral home burglars took embalming fluid to get high in a bizarre case. NBC's Spencer Lubitz reports.
Today in misguided things young people do: Emergency physicians at Corpus Christi, Texas, hospital say they've seen a marked increase in patients -- including three teenagers this holiday weekend -- who've overdosed on embalming fluid, in what may be an unlikely casualty of the recent wave of 1990s nostalgia.
Here's what's happening: People seeking an enhanced high soak marijuana joints in, in these particular cases, formaldehyde, for the secondary effects. "Embalming fluid burns more slowly than the marijuana would if it were not treated," says Dr. Bret Nicks, assistant professor of emergency medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Health in Winston-Salem, N.C. This technique causes what can be an intense hallucinatory effect.
Nicks explains that the first time emergency physicians saw cases of formaldehyde overdoses was in the early 1990s. "It’s crazy that this is coming around again," explains Nicks, who's also the public relations committee chair for the American College of Emergency Physicians. "It’s interesting what people do, creatively. Apparently, someone read something and thought, Hey, this is what they did back in the 90s -- this sounds cheap!"
To be fair, we're really talking about just a handful of scattered cases at this point. Nicks says he's seen just two cases in the last year related to formaldehyde-laced marijuana. And according to our Texas NBC affiliate pals at KRIS, three teens were treated at CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial after inhaling too much formaldehyde. Also in the Texas town, police are investigating two burglaries at a funeral home -- in both cases, the only thing stolen was formaldehyde.
"I have been in this industry 32 years and I have never had a problem in the funeral industry. In fact most people treat our establishment and funeral homes in general as a place of reverance," says Ron Alonzo, the owner of the funeral home.
Alonzo fears the burglary was an inside job, considering the thieves got a hold of the embalming fluid very quickly without being caught. A window was smashed and set off an alarm leaving the thieves only two minutes before police arrived. The owner says they bypassed all the electronics in the business and went straight for the formaldehyde before leaving.
As Nicks explains, you should avoid this particular '90s revival. "The downside with formaldehyde -- you're looking at toxic psychosis and hallucinations that are not dissimilar to what we'd see with PCP," says Nicks, who adds panic, paranoia and loss of consciousness to the souped-up drug's deleterious effects.
In the short term, people have reported blurred vision and persistent headaches -- but there just haven't been enough studies to determine the potential damage to users' central nervous systems in the long-term. But a few case reports published in the early 90s describe people for whom the formaldehyde-laced joints trigger underlying psychiatric disorders, including "schizophrenia-like" conditions.
"The enhanced high, suffice to say, comes with increased risk," Nicks says.
Follow msnbc.com health writer Melissa Dahl on Twitter @melissadahl.
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Leave a Comment:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but marijuana does not cause hallucinations, right? That being the case, how can soaking it in formaldehyde "enhance the hallucinatory effect?"
On a different line, some people -- such as those doing this -- are just stupid, and as Ron White says, "You can't fix stupid."
Actually, this will probably fix the stupid quite permanently.
Hey there: Thanks for the comment. You have a point -- that quote was a little unclear. We edited the post.
Some research now is suggesting that high levels of THC can lead to hallucinatory effects. With changes in cultivation/engineering the marijuana of today is not the same as that in the 60's. It is much more potent and often laced or engineered for added effect. A study was done on street purchases a while back that showed approx 40% was not pure "marijuana" and over 15% had what was considered to be toxic levels of pesticides. The numbers are from memory so someone can find the study if they want more detail.
Considering people use powdered battery acid, paint, glue, and even snort certain types of candy to get a sudden rush this is not surprising. Idiocracy was meant to be a humorous take on society but in 100 yrs we just may be there.
@melissa Its still pretty ambigious. Now it sounds like they do it simply to make the joint burn slower. People have soaked cigarettes with formaldehyde and smoked that for the same PCP-like hallucinogenic effects. I think the fact that they used marijuana is entirely secondary. Whatever effects are produced from smoking the formaldehyde are predominant and are the real point of the story.
Halo-THC is a mild hallucinogen.
Kvorshk is correct. It's effects can include a feeling of relaxation, faster heart rate, the sensation that time is passing more slowly, and a greater sense of hearing, taste, touch, and smell. Inexperienced users can actually freak out on potent pot, or laugh uncontrollably, or any number of things. Overall, it is very mild, and that is actually the attraction.
Apparently, someone read Snoop Dogg's biography.
@Mike P101 You do realize you're spouting government propaganda, right? It's not that cannabis is more potent today, it's that good cannabis is more abundant. There were no internet forums and things like High Times focused more on hallucinogenic substances like Acid and Mushrooms. Now all of this information is available through a quick Google search. And on a side note, there isn't a single cannabis plant on this planet that has been "engineered" for anything. Ordinary people who smoke pot do not have access to the resources required to create a super-weed (neither do the breeders who breed cannabis seed professionally), and the people that do have access to those resources wouldn't be able to get anywhere near a live cannabis plant because of Federal laws.
cali look im a pot head and its stronger than when i started so I dont think its just propaganda.
It's stronger, so you smoke less. It balances out.
@CaliCoast214, he's not spouting goverment propaganda. It is unfortunatly true. More and more dealers lace marijuana so that they will recieve more regular customers bc they have "the best weed". I have a friend who doesnt smoke anymore bc he bought some weed off this guy not knowing he had laced it with PCP. And lets just say, he had a very very bad trip. He tried tearing off the wall till his fingers bled. He woke up in the hospital not knowing what had happened and what he had done. As for mor good cannabis being abundant... I would have to say I wouldnt trust any dealer unless i saw tht he's growing the weed he's selling and that there are no other drugs and chemicals in sight. But the best way to go is not to smoke so that there is no worry over chemical taintness of the cannabis :P
On the brighter side, it will save the mortician some work when these chaps show up at the mortuary.
Job security.
On the other side: call it "Getting a head start...." Competition is really getting stiff......
What kind of an idiot would screw up good marijuana by putting POISON on it?
Jeez Morons......why not just drink bleach or rat killer.....Dumbasses.
Careful Kelly ---- They'll read your post and try it---lol.
I think you answered your own question with the words morons and dumb asses.
Its cool, Kelly, its called "culling the herd".
Yeah, they might as well just smoke cigarettes.
It's Texas. They don't have good pot, they're smoking whatever the cartels smuggle in (for the most part).
That's just too weird.
Certainly explains the Anthony jury, doesn't it?
No, it does not. In America if the DA can't PROVE someone guilty, they are NOT GUILTY!
It'd be cheaper to buy more marijuana than going to the emergency room because you're an idiot.
"Embalming Fluid" was the street name for PCP (because it made you act like a zombie). A reporter in the mid-90's heard that joints were laced with "embalming fluid" and wrote in a news article/magazine the chemical name formaldehyde, completely screwing up the facts. Now, kids think they are getting high from using it, when in reality it's extremely cancer causing. Why they would write an article (after only 2 instances) shows that our media likes to instigate problems instead of reporting/preventing them.
This is why street drug names suck, and the PCP<->formaldehyde myth is definitely the most notorious example. Why don't people eat pool acid thinking it's the same as LSD? Who knows.
For the record PCP is a drug who's street names include "embalming fluid". Real embalming fluid is formaldehyde which has nothing to do with the drug PCP.
The media is only making this connection worse by falsely reporting myths as facts.
If you've ever been to Corpus Christi, TX, you would know why kids are seeking this sense of escape.
Im not from Corpus Christi so why are thy seeking this sense of escape other than just stupidity?
"So the hallucinatory effect of the marijuana is more enhanced." They had to throw in this lie in for no reason. Just like the hallucinatory effects of alcohol.
Yeah, I have a slight suspicion that Dr. Bret Nicks has never actually smoked marijuana, let alone seen any. Good to hear he is being quoted as an "expert" in the matter. I would have rather heard from Cheech (or Chong) as a matter expert in this story, I might have actually believed them.
Thanks to you guys, too, for the comments -- you have a point. We edited the post.
Pot causes hallucinations? Wow... I must have been smoking some weak stuff last summer.
/sarcasm
yes i think i need to find a new co-op and find that better stuff
More grist for the Darwin Awards.
I posted on this issue a few weeks ago, how outre. On the South Side of Chicago, where I used to live, they called them dips. You take a blunt of ditch weed and dip it in formaldehyde. It was pretty much accepted - I find it humorous that three white boys (I'm white, BTW) getting too spliffed makes it suddenly relevant again.
And for those of you who are curious - smoking formaldehyde is a bit like huffing nitrous. But not in a good way.
...which I hear from the fools who actually smoked it...
Idiots! Don't worry you will be full of formaldehyde soon enough!!! No need to rush it crazy addicts!
Guess stuffing your body full of embalming fluid saves time later, after you die from the overdose... The things people do to themselves...
Well, nothing to do now but outlaw embalming fluid.
It is perhaps true that formaldehyde does increase the hallucinatory effect of marijuana because marijuana is considered only a mild hallucinanen. Also, hallucinations do not necessarily include visual hallucinations.
But Hanover Phist, as you state, but I feel it is only implied, I can see why an element of lying exists, perhaps for media hype.
And Kelly-536311, so true. What idiot wants to mix something which is classified as a poison, into the marijuana, which is not a poison, contrary to some beliefs.
Almost everyone knows the government scare tactics regarding marijuana are lies. That sets people up to disbelieve government claims about other substances. The war on drugs kills.
Ugh, this again?
Fortunately it never caught on in the town I lived in during my pot smoking days.
I never understood...isn't the point of marijuana a gentle, chill kind of high? Why would you gunk it up with something that induces panic and hallucinations?
Yuck. Oh My God.
It's pretty prevalent around here . The street name used for marijuana laced with embalming fluid is "water".
Back in college I took a Sociology class called "Death, dying and bereavement" and we took a tour of a funeral home. We went into the room where the embalm the deceased and they mentioned that if anyone starts to fill sick they are free to leave the room and get some fresh air. They let us know this is because of the strong chemicals that are used, which at that moment were closed and locked in a closet.
I thought for sure it would be nothing, but I started feeling extremely dizzy and my stomach was telling me it wanted freedom. My point though is.... that stuff is SUPER potent.
The things that people do to get high are always astonishing. Anyways, I've got to get back to perfecting my newest invention: Corncaine. It's going to revolutionize the drug war, but since it is subsidized, our government officials won't know what to do about it!! (joke/sarcasm)
HA.
Congrats -- you've just won our very prestigious Comment of the Day.
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As a former X-Ray Darkroom technician of 26 years, I can attest to the toxicity of formaldehyde from personal experience. It is used to finish the film development of x-ray film so that the image on the polymer base of said film doesn't wash off during the rinse of the film. Formaldehyde makes the polymer base harden so as to retain the image after washing. It is a common fact that it is highly carcinogenic and can cause a person to go into a coma if ingested. This process can take less than an hour according to Hazardous Materials Documents that I have read that were provided to me by Kodak Film Corp. Kodak and Dupont are two of the biggest manufacturers in the world of formaldehyde. It can be very nasty stuff if mishandled. These guys were playing russian roulette. Not good.
We called it "Angel Dust" back in the 60's. I know it was a fad in NYC
Can I request that any videos used in stories are started by my own free will, rather than just shoved at me with auto-play? Thanks.
Working on that. Hang on ...
I have heard of a slow burn. But now it's a killer. Kids maybe don't care. There is nothing except doom and gloom in life for children today. Maybe if life in America were more positive, then the children would not look to find ways to deaden their senses to life.