SLIDELL — On at least five occasions within a weeks’ time, parish deputies and local police have responded to calls regarding individuals under the influence of a new synthetic drug, and some of these encounters have turned very violent.
The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office is reporting one incident involving the drug in Abita Springs, as well as several in the Slidell area. One variant of the drug can provoke violent and aggressive behavior similar to an individual on PCP (phencyclidine), while another variant can cause a hallucinated state such as one created by LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide).
On May 18 at approximately 12:30 a.m., deputies were sent to an Abita Springs home for a medical emergency.
Deputies arrived at the home and discovered three highly impaired teenagers. Two of the individuals were incoherent and in a state of near paralysis, according to a STPO report. The third was highly agitated and became combative while deputies were interviewing him. He was subdued and transported to the hospital, but a deputy’s hand was injured in the struggle. The other two impaired teenagers were also transported to the hospital. Deputies located two packages of “Super Nova,” which they believe the teens smoked.
Slidell Police were dispatched to a suspicious person knocking on doors at an apartment complex in the early morning hours of May 15. Officers found two men in their 20s in the parking lot of the complex covered in blood. The two men were incoherent but one did manage to tell officers that his “brain was cooking.”
Officers located the men’s apartment and found blood scattered about the inside. Further investigation into the ransacked apartment revealed that the men cut themselves with glass from a broken mirror. They were treated at a local hospital and had no recollection of the event.
That same morning, Slidell Police were dispatched to a disturbance and found two men on the front lawn. One of the men was passed out while another was on top of him pulling his hair out. It took seven officers to restrain the conscious man, who kicked, punched and even bit officers as they tried to subdue him for transport to the hospital.
The man stopped breathing at one point during transport and was eventually put on a ventilator. Both men have since recovered from the incident and gave officers statements that they ingested a drug called “2CI-Nbomb.”
On May 16 at approximately 8:30 p.m., deputies responded to a Slidell area home after a caller reported her friends needed medical attention. The caller informed the dispatcher that her friends ingested an unknown drug and were out of control.
Deputies arrived at the home and found three individuals suspected of being under the influence of a hallucinogen. One of the individuals was pacing back and forth in a highly agitated state.
While deputies were speaking with the agitated man, he moved furniture around and stated the floor was covered with blood, when there was no blood visible to deputies.
It took at least four deputies to subdue him to a gurney for transport to the hospital. The remaining two people in the home were also transported to the hospital for treatment.
The Sheriff’s Office Crime Lab is analyzing substances that have been collected from some of the scenes. The Sheriff’s Office and Slidell Police are actively investigating the source of these new synthetic drugs in our area.