Spokane Police and health officials warn of batch of drugs causing unusually erratic behavior
SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane Police Department and Health District officials put out a city wide warning about a possible bad batch of drugs going around after receiving more than 20 calls on Tuesday alone, and with more coming in all the time.
Officers have responded to a number of calls where folks are yelling at non-existent things, walking down the middle of the streets and when approached are combative.
“People are having psychosis, that typically means that individual is having delusions, hallucinations, hearing voices, seeing things, which is giving cause to erratic behavior,” said Dr. Bob Lutz, Health Officer for the Spokane Regional Health District.
He says a lot of the evidence right now suggests that the drug is a stimulant, causing folks to begin breathing hard, sweat profusely, and vomit, in addition to the psychosis.
“Imagine if you will that you are running a marathon,” he said, “that is what it’s like.”
He says the likely culprit is methamphetamine, a drug he explains is being used much more frequently in Spokane, but is not clear just yet.
“Illicitly, we look at meth as the most common that people use,” he said, “but others include ephedra, which is essentially adrenaline.”
Both he and Spokane Police advise being careful around folks that may be having dangerous symptoms.
“Call 911,” Lutz said, “call 911, these individuals are having a psychotic episode and have no idea what is going on.”
As the details become clearer on where the drug is coming from, and what it is exactly, Lutz asks everyone to get the word out about the dangers of the drug.
“If you are a friend or family of someone who you know who may be using stimulants, tell them heads up, there’s a bad batch of something, we don’t know what going around,” he said, “tell them to get rid of them.”
Spokane Police ask that anyone with any information on the potentially bad batch of drugs call Crime Check at 509-456-2233.
Spokane Police initially reported that someone had died from this current suspected bad batch of drugs, however they updated their information on Wednesday to reflect that the individual had passed away from a different type of drug.
If you or someone you know is suffering from drug addiction, there is a 24/7 hotline they can call for help. That number is 1-866-789-1511.
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