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Joints and Formaldehyde - A Wicked, Potent Combo
Michaelangelo Conte | Jersey Journal | 08/10/2005

The practice of dipping marijuana cigarettes in embalming fluid has been around for years.

But some experts say the potent combination is becoming more of a problem in Hudson County and in Newark, where it figured in a shootout Sunday night that left one user dead, one wounded and one other person injured.

A friend told police that he and 20-year-old Ibn Berger had been smoking joints laced with formaldehyde shortly before Berger began shooting people in the Seth Boyden housing complex in Newark. Berger then shot at two cops before being shot and killed himself.

Known on the street by numerous nicknames including "illy," "leek," "crazy Eddie," "wet," "amp" and "purple rain," the formaldehyde-laced marijuana, sometimes with PCP added as well, has been a problem for years, Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said.

"It has been a recognized drug problem in Hudson County for a number of years," he said. "PCP/formaldehyde-treated marijuana is extremely potent and causes people in some cases to react in extraordinarily aberrant or violent ways."

DeFazio cited the case of William Marable, who admitted smoking marijuana laced with PCP before walking into the West District police precinct in 1999 and attacking desk officer Joe Kelly. He took Kelly's gun and shot Lt. Patrick Robinson, and then was shot by Sgt. Ed Carattini.

During his court appearance, Marable said he had smoked dipped marijuana and then had no memory of what happened next. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges of assault and aggravated assault.

Such violence is typical of users of the chemical-laced pot, according to David Kerr, director of Integrity House, a Newark drug treatment center.

"It just whacks their brains out," he said. "They're smoking pot, and they dip it and they go berserk."

Integrity House admitted 69 patients who used the drug combination last year, up from 40 in 2003, Kerr said, and has recently seen an influx of patients from Hudson County looking for treatment.

Users can become paranoid and experience hallucinations, experts say.

"They scream, shout, become violent," Kerr said. "It's very unpredictable. This is very insidious because these are people who are not too centered anyway."

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Cassius

While I think it's ****ed up that anyone would do that, and I think it probably ****s them up pretty bad to do it, as far as this goes:

... well, I don't trust anything authority figures tell me about drugs any more. After all, I've been lied to my whole life. I even wore the green "Just Say No" shirts in middle school!

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teufelfisch

Prominently displayed at the top of a formaldehyde MSDS are the following symbols (attached).

Two points to the first one who can tell me what they mean!

The good news is that smoked formaldehyde does not produce noncardiogenic pulmonary edema. (Whatever that means) (J. Appl. Physiology 1992 72(2):555-561)

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teufelfisch

I can't find anything in the journals that supports the claim that formaldehyde causes violence. Imagine-- if it did, we'd have drugged up biologists running around shooting people!

However, the link between PCP and violence is popularly known. Interestingly, though, searches through science journals turned up nothing. I suspect the "link" was fabricated in the 70's as a result of a "reefer madness syndrome" against PCP.

"Embalming Fluid" is slang for PCP, this may have caused some confusion.

Yana Usdi

As far as I know the link between PCP and embalming fluid is little more than slang that's become urban legend. Back in the 70's in the DC area they sprayed it on pot and called it wack, in Southern California in the early 80's they dipped a particular brand of cigarette in it and called them sherms. The connection between it and pot is pretty thin, I've never seen anyone who was into that stuff that cared much about raw pot. It was just a convenient carrier for some.

On violence... that's tougher. Yeah, people are probably more prone to violence when on it. Drunks are more prone to it too. It doesn't cause violence so much as disorient and remove judgment and inhibitions, if you're in any way prone to acting out it may bring that to the surface. It's one of the few that I see little or no legit use for, if we did "legalize" that would probably stay in the same class as morphine and the rest are in now, medical use only as far as we can keep it that way.

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ChronicSmoke7

yea, i can say from personal experienceWet weed is very harmful, i knew one guy who smoked it so much wound up almost dying and couldn't remember how to talk for a few days, wiped out his memory and part of his motor functions, major brain damage, he recovered but never compeltely
I do think the violence depends on the person, cause some of the people i knew who did it got "stuck" they would have to have been put in a violent situation before they would even move, but when your wacked on PCP violence is the name of the game.....

Basically Baked

You guys want to know something really funny? I know this is kind of off topic so i'll keep it short. Did you know that the U.S government actually considers marijuana to be more harmful than PCP. PCP is a schedule 2 drug (same as morphine), meaning that it can be perscribed and has lighter prison sentences associated with its use than pot.

We live in a strange crazy world.

finetree

corrosive and poisonous

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Abomonog

Err... People.... Do not smoke embalming fluid. Lets just leave the Eww factor as enough reason not too.


Every slang term I've read here as only been used in association with PCP. There is also two others I know... Sherman (as in:"Smoking a Sherman.") and wire Because you always used Randy's brand rolling papers when smoking PCP because of the wire in the paper. I don't know why the wire was needed, but we always had to have a Randy's. But that was 25 years ago.

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killer12382

This crap is the ideal reason why marijuana needs to be legalized.