Strawberry Quick, Meth's Dangerous New Form

The following email has been hitting inboxes for several weeks now:

Drug Warning: Beware and Please Inform Your Children.

I have been alerted by one of our EMT's for our volunteer fire department that they have received emails from emergency responder organizations to be on the lookout for a new form of Crystal Meth that is targeted at children and to be aware of this new form if called to an emergency involving a child that may have symptoms of drug induction or overdose.

They are calling this new form of meth "Strawberry Quick" and it looks like Pop Rocks candy that sizzle in your mouth. In it's current form, it is dark pink in color and has a strawberry scent to it.

Please advise your children and their friends and other students not to accept candy from strangers as this is obviously an attempt to seduce children into drug use. They also need to be cautious accepting candy from even friends that may have received it from someone else, thinking it is just candy.

According to Snopes.com, the Urban-Legend busting website, there is absolute truth to this circulating email. Confirmed in 8 states already, flavored meth - available in such varieties as chocolate, peanut butter, fruit flavors, and soda flavors - is likely to spread throughout the nation as dealers seek new users. While the flavored additives can decrease the bitter taste of meth, Carson City, Nev., Undersheriff Steve Albertson has another explanation for these new versions of meth: "[drug dealers] spread the word that this meth, whatever color it is, is the best kind of meth there is."

Aside from setting themselves apart from other dealers, why else would someone want to sell flavored meth? Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman, Steve Robertson, has an idea. "Drug traffickers are trying to lure new customers, no matter what their age, by making meth seem less dangerous."

Though methamphetamine's popularity has been on a steady decline throughout the nation, this latest marketing is sure to snare new addicts. However, U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-California) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) are doing what they can to put a stop to this, by introducing legislation designed to penalize drug dealers who market candy-flavored meth to children. The Saving Kids from Dangerous Drugs Act would double (or triple, for repeat offenses) federal penalties for anybody who "manufactures, creates, distributes, or possesses with intent to distribute a controlled substance that is flavored, colored, packaged or otherwise altered in a way that is designed to make it more appealing to a person under 21 years of age, or who attempts or conspires to do so."

Feinstein has also urged the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and the Advertising Council to consider creating public service campaigns to increase awareness about candy-flavored meth. It is her hope that parents and youth across America will be warned of this dangerous trend before it is too late.

Sources:

Leinwand, Donna. "DEA: Flavored meth use on the rise."
USA Today. 26 March 2007.

http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=NewsRoom.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=2a23db2e-dffd-dee7-3504-5bf193466681

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/drugs/candymeth.asp