Students need to realize that there is no way to ‘know’ what combination of drugs are in the illegal substances. Even Marijuana, which is unfortunately legal in some states, can be ‘laced’ with hallucinogenics - and some people who use some of these substances do have ST and long term mental issues that perhaps can be tied to these drugs. Maybe they have a Borderline Personality Disorder and they get bumped into being Schizophrenic; see and hear things that are not there. Many, many other issues when opening Pandora’s Box.
Wessleyan (CT) is ranked #15 Best National Liberal Arts Universities, and is ‘most selective’. You have smart kids there, but taking illegal drugs is a youth risk thing. One student was in critical condition over the weekend. I guess the students affected can feel lucky no one died. Four people were charged in court today in Hartford for their roles in illegal drug distribution.
Do not ‘borrow trouble’ with any form of illegal drugs! And parents, please warn your students, in middle school, high school, and college.
Besides pure MDMA, they can include heroin, pcps, cocaine etc. There are all kinds of synthetic drugs out there that are being created all the time which have effects that aren’t known.
Anything can be “laced” with anything. Even illegally sold cigarettes can be laced.
That’s why drugs should be legal and regulated. When’s the last time you heard of someone drinking a beer and finding out that it had a little “coke” mixed in (from the manufacturer, not from a rapist at a party)?
It also could have been an interaction of whatever “else” was in the Molly with alcohol. Sure there was alcohol involved as well. When you start taking unlabeled pills from unknown sources it is just playing “russian roulette.”
How do you control drugs that are sold online and where a part of a molecule changes to skirt the laws. I know people who are in this business and they have skirted every law out there even though the laws are changing all the time to include more synthetic drugs.
Doc T, that’s right. And as we speak a truly epic battle is brewing between the District of Columbia municipal government and Congress about the legalization of Marijuana, which was approved by DC voters last November.
And I don’t think we can say yet that no one died. AFAIK the critical students are still listed as critical. The simple fact that Middlesex Memorial Hospital had them airlifted to Hartford Hospital 20 minutes away on a Sunday morning – and two others in better condition were transferred by ground ambulance …
I agree that anything can be contaminated with something else.
However, a while back it was claimed that marijuana- which sells for $10-40 a gram, was being laced with cocaine, which runs about double that.
It was not explained why an expensive drug, would be used in this way.
Drugs & alcohol were available in my suburban jr high in 1970, and drugs & alcohol are available at virtually every college and high school in 2015, although there seems to be a greater variety available, with cheaper prices.
When I was in high school, most kids stuck to cheap beer & pot, because everything else was too expensive.
It was the kids in the private & parochial schools who had money for cocaine & psychedelic drugs.
From what I understand, drinking alcohol after taking ecstasy would be even more dangerous.
Alcohol will dehydrate, NOT hydrate you.
MDMA seems to play havoc with your body’s temprature regulating mechanism.
“Even Marijuana, which is unfortunately legal in some states, can be ‘laced’ with hallucinogenics”
Not in the legal states, it isn’t. You’re a lot more likely to get surprises in your illegal drugs.
“Maybe they have a Borderline Personality Disorder and they get bumped into being Schizophrenic”
Your description of these conditions is outdated, like 1970s outdated. “Borderline Personality Disorder” was thought to be on the borderline between neurotic and psychotic conditions more than a generation ago. The name stuck, but mental health professionals have understood for many decades that BPD doesn’t have anything to do with schizophrenia or other psychosis.
@hanna I disagree with you. I know a number of examples where individuals have gone from being diagnosed one way and then due to drug abuse have totally lost touch with reality and deemed Schizophrenic.
I worked in a psych unit where a classmate’s older brother’s brain was totally ‘fried’ by drugs, and he had the mental capacity of a 4 year old.
When a drug is illegal, you do not know what you are taking.
I am not so sure all the legal Marijuana states are having ‘legal’ Marijuana taken - when kids want and extra ‘kick’…
I honestly would be afraid to live in a state with legal Marijuana.
I am totally fine with moderate and responsible alcohol use when of legal age. And I think it is totally fine if at a family dinner parents use their own discretion with serving wine to their young adults who may be under 21. Families teach things to their children.
The radio report I heard said the Mollys with Wessleyan students had a stimulant and Mescaline to answer one poster’s question.
I saw an ER show where some people took some party drug - I don’t remember what it was, but if they had not gone to ER and been treated, they would have died. It was an OD situation. They put out an alert so people in that area would refrain from taking as the drug supplier had a ‘bad batch’ on the streets.
I have not problem with people with medical conditions using Marijuana as prescribed by their doctor - for pain management, epilepsy, etc. This is not what I am talking about here, and the legal supply of the Marijuana to these folks would be just like prescription medication.
I am not for excess alcohol consumption either.
Enjoying one’s youth does not mean using illegal drugs and excessive amounts of alcohol - people in all walks of life can do this - how many do it as short term behavior, and how many have problems due to alcohol/drugs because of the reasons they perhaps started.
People can choose to ignore what effects ingested substances affect their brains and their behaviors.
I am not uptight because my kids are having fun at college - and fun does not have to mean using illegal drugs and excessive amounts of alcohol.
Why introduce problems into one’s life? Parents can only do so much as parents, and hope their children make wise choices in their college years and beyond.
There was a 20/20 story about a bright student who slipped into ‘casual drug use’ at college to being a dealer, and then to overdosing. Very sad.
Update by Associated Press in Sunday’s paper. The drugs were taken Sept 13.Two Wesleyan students were ‘fighting for their lives’ - Friday night Sept 27, the only victim still in the hospital, “against all odds” the student would survive. “The drug dealing was an open secret”. The four students arrested sound like they were the distributors - two were known to sell Molly from their residences… A school trustee commented “You want a policy which keeps students safe. You don’t want them to experiment with all this sort of stuff.” It sounded like either the student drug use problem was growing or there were varying numbers with disciplinary actions - with a student body of 3200, 154 in 2011, 281 in 2012, and 240 in 2013.
To me it seems more student education for making ‘responsible choices’, including the school examining how to deal with this issue. This involves way too many students, and crosses over on the health issues and safety of students regarding “addictive and dangerous substances”.
Two recent books “The Teenage Brain” by Frances Jensen, and “The Brain’s Way of Healing” by Norman Doidge.
On the first, this neuroscientist uses current research data to show how the unique architecture of the adolescent brain makes teens open to new information but susceptible to mood swings and poor judgment, and goes into addiction risk.
The second is by a psychiatrist with breakthrough therapies that tap unexpected neural pathways.