Image Courtesy Star News Online
Triad, NC-- WFMY News has learned of a new way people are getting high that's legal.
Teens and possibly adults are using a substance called "Pump-It," sold in stores as an enhanced plant vitamin, but people are injecting it to get high.
Police in Wilmington, NC actually caught some young people in the act of injecting the substance into their body. But, it's not outlawed like K2 Spice or Bath Salts.
Pump-It has not made it to the Triad yet, but Alamance County Sheriff's Public Information Officer Randy Jones told News 2 that it is inevitable it will be in the Triad, saying, "It seems to be part of a disturbing trend we've seen the last two to three years, products that are being misused or designer drugs that are common on the market."
Pump-It is part of a growing list of what police call "designer drugs." The powdery substance is a stimulant named methylhexanamine, and according to laws the substance combination isn't a drug.
Other "designer drugs" are easily available, as News 2's Patrick Phillippi was able to find "Infinity," another "designer drug" that is available in the Triad.
These drugs are particularly dangerous because the high is delayed, unlike other street drugs such as crack and meth. When people don't feel the high they use more, which can put them in the hospital.
Authorities said, drugs like Pump-It do not go through any inspection like legal drugs because it is marketed for plants, not people.
Jones says what frightens him is, "People don't know what to do with it, we can't arrest for it until it becomes illegal, and then medically they don't know how to treat it because they don't know what it is doing to the body to start with."