HOULTON, Maine — Earlier this year, statewide data from the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency showed that methamphetamine use was concentrated largely in Aroostook County, while bath salts were used more frequently in Rockland and Bangor.
In the past few months, however, the MDEA has seen an influx in The County of Alpha-PVP, one of several synthetic drugs marketed as bath salts, and have charged nine people with related crimes.
“We have seized 1.6 pounds over the past couple of months,” Darrell Crandall, MDEA division commander, said Thursday. “We have charged seven people with trafficking them and two with possession.”
In Houlton on Dec. 21, police found what they believed to be bath salts in a container in a motel room.
Bath salts can be snorted, smoked, injected or swallowed, and cause users to act unpredictably.
A spike in the number of children entering state custody because their parents were abusing bath salts forced the state’s Office of Child and Family Services to add almost $1 million to its budget this year to accommodate 200 additional children living in foster care and in the homes of relatives.
Crandall said that in The County, the MDEA has seized the drugs mostly in the Mars Hill, Presque Isle and Caribou areas as part of wider, ongoing investigations.
At an average cost of $150 a gram, the street value of the 1.6 pounds seized is well above $100,000, Crandall said Thursday.
Residing in the county I must say, I’m not surprised. I can’t help but feel that alcohol and drug abuse runs rampant up here. I wish I knew what to do. We aren’t as crazy a people as I am often led to believe by reading the BDN all of the time. All I can do is applaud our law enforcement officials for doing their best to keep these drugs away from youth and out of our communities, and implore them to keep up the good work.
I’ll never understand why people waste their money on dangerous chemicals instead of good old Allen’s. Here’s your sign.
Some people will do anything to escape the boredom of reality.
Idiots. It feels like the world is getting dumber by the second.
Because it truly IS!
What happend to the good ol day when we would get a bag of weed and a keg of beer and go to Hanson Lake!!!!
I could not agree more with you, Michael! Back in the day we would get some beer, a little bit of weed, go to camp and we stayed put! The next day we all got up and went to work because back then kids had jobs!
Aroostook County has had a drug problem since the 1970’s. You drive through any of the towns, particularly Caribou and PI, and you can see the jello brains on every corner. The need for drugs fuels the majority of crime in the County. Unfortunately most people in either town deny this reality.
It is time to wake up and face reality drugs have been, are and will be in the county. So we must step to the plate and accept this. If you suspect someone is or there is other strange activity report it as it doesn’t hurt to be wrong but it does if you are not. Those could be your family members that are involved.
No kidding.