Health officials in the Midwest and South are alarmed about a new drug where
one of the main ingredients may be bug spray. Welcome back to What's Trending,
I'm Martine Beerman. Make sure to subscribe for more trending news and
social media stories every day. The street drug is called KD, and it's
either marijuana or tobacco that's been blasted with bug spray. Police say they
found those who have taken the drug in catatonic, zombie-like states. Kind of a
loss-of-function overall. We find them with their clothes off. They've done that
to themselves. They're eating the grass. They're pulling dirt out off the
ground and trying to put it in their mouth.
The active ingredients in bug spray are chemical compounds known as pyrethroids.
They disrupt the nervous system of insects causing paralysis and death, so
of course the natural next step is to take this thing that kills other things
and put it on something that you ingest. And the reason they're used commonly as
insecticides is because they're effective against bugs and relatively
non-toxic to humans. I don't know if I buy into that, but here's a gross moment
with me. I grew up in South Africa and if we got bitten by any type of flying
insect, the only way to get rid of it was then to spray a room. So you'd spray the
room and then you shut the door as fast as you could so that you didn't take in
any of the chemicals and fumes from the bug spray so that you don't die or get
sick. Just to clarify this was 100% bug spray and to this day that
is still what we do. Of course you're not gonna try and breathe in something that
has any type of chemical that can paralyze or kill. I mean that just seems
like common sense. And then if we're talking about OFF! or anything that has
any type of DEET in it. If you get DEET on something as simple as the front of
your cell phone, it can actually burn little holes into your cell phone. And I
know this because it happened to me. So let's assume that it's not okay to smoke.
Alright. You got no more weed. You call the dealer. They're not picking up. I never look at Raid like...
Authorities in Indianapolis say they receive dozens of KD related medical
calls per day, often for the same person multiple times a day. We sent him off to
the hospital, get checked out, within about two hours they may be back here on
the street doing it again. Probably because they're doing the drugs
with the stuff on it , get sick, forget, do it over again, get sick, forget, do it
again. KD, or a related drug, has also been spotted in Tennessee and Mississippi.
Health experts are also worried about young people using KD because it's so
easily accessible. Says the problem is this household chemical is extremely
accessible and legal. So if you think like wow my school is doing drug testing
so I don't have to worry about my kid, well some of the drug testing may steer
kids into using a lot more of these synthetic drugs because they're not
detected. But SC Johnson, the company that produces Raid, is not happy that its
product is being associated with a drug craze, and thinks medics might be
mistaken about what's in KD. In a statement they said: "According to our
scientific experts, exposure to the active ingredients in these products
would not cause the reported effects. Global authorities, including the WHO
and the EPA for many decades have studied these active ingredients and
they've not reported ill effects like this. Additionally, even if these active
ingredients were intentionally overused, these type of symptoms would not be
associated with them, nor with the state last for 45 minutes." Me thinks SC
Johnson's pretty defensive about the situation. Realistically I'm not even
sure people using their product with drugs is even their fault. Let's turn to
the masses to see what you guys have to say about it.
Carrie Barton says: "What is ridiculous is blaming it on the spray rather than the
idiots that are doing this. This is nobody's fault but the person that is
doing this. We're living in the days that it is cool not to have a job. We have the
Democrats making people think they're worthless. The only way we'll come back
from this is with God." That's right. When all else fails, blame Obama. Dianne
Fitzpatrick says: "Thanks for this important public information. People do
not know what they're getting when this happens.
I'm guessing they think it's marijuana but who knows. At least the info is out
there." C Meede says: "Maybe legalize marijuana and people would not need to
buy this crap!" I don't know which state you live in C Meede,
but it's been legalized and a bunch of them. However, not in Indiana, Mississippi,
or Tennessee. Maybe you raise a good point and that
was a gross moment with me. What do you guys think about people who smoke weed
with bug spray in it? Are they morons? Are they just out there
looking for the next kick? How do we stop people from doing stupid sh*t like this?Llet
us know in the comments, and for more trends head to whatstrending.com.