HAMILTON COUNTY, Ind. (May 26, 2015)– The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office brought parents up to speed on the latest drug trends in central Indiana Tuesday. Dozens of people attended a public forum in Noblesville. Along with the sheriff, a representative with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) spoke about what they see on the streets.
“The synthetic drug problem is upon us. We don’t know what’s in these drugs that are being manufactured.They have all kinds of unknown substances in them,” said Hamilton County Sheriff Mark Bowen.
Bowen says kids have the misconception that synthetic drugs are safer and won’t show up on a drug test.
Along with law enforcement officials, Jeff Rose shared a much more personal account of the dangers of drugs.
“Unfortunately, my boy was messing with some ‘shrooms and it had a bad impact on him. That’s not supposed to happen to 18-year-old boys,” said Rose.
Rose lost his baseball-obsessed son Avrey Rose in April 2015. Jeff says his son tried mushrooms with a group of friend and began experiencing seizures. Avrey was a senior at Noblesville High School.
Now, just one month after losing his son, Jeff is sharing his story of loss in the hopes of saving others.
“They are under this misconception that it is safe and OK and that it’s not going to kill them and it’s no big deal,” said parent Kelly Monnin.
Law enforcement agencies in central Indiana are keeping a close watch on a new designer drug called Flakka. There have been several cases reported in Florida where the user appears to have super-human strength and experience hallucinations.
“I’ve read about it. I don’t think we’ve seen it in our community but that’s something we want folks to be aware of,” said Bowen.
There have already been cases of Flakka in northern Indiana. Bowen hasn’t seen any cases in Hamilton County, but says it’s only a matter of time.
“We’ve seen it when individuals that have taken these drugs appear to have super-human strength and do things beyond comprehension,” said Bowen.