A drug known as KD has raised concerns in Indianapolis as medics reported seeing a spike in overdose cases involving this street drug mixed with bug spray.
Drug Mixed With Bug Spray
There are different variations of KD, which include those that use spice, marijuana, tobacco, and banana leaves. However, all are laced with a heavy-duty bug spray, such as the pesticide Raid, and smoked.
The bug spray contains pyrethroids, compounds that in high concentration, may induce respiratory distress and neuroexcitation that can cause sweating, seizure, and the risk of falling into a coma.
"You look at what it does to a bug," said Scott Lebherz, an Indianapolis firefighter. "And then you got to think what it's doing to your brain, and your body and everything else."
Experts said that mixing a substance is actually a way to enhance a drug's predicted high. Chris Major, the Indianapolis Fire Department captain, described the potency of the drug. He said that the effect of the drug on those who use it is so fast, users are passing out with KD still in their hand.
KD Causes Zombie-like Effects
Major said that the people who use the drug experience zombie-like effects marked by the inability to talk to authorities, as well as drooling, and loss of function.
Users were also observed to have slow and lethargic movement and were found engaged in odd behaviors. Some were found with their clothes off, pulling dirt off the ground, and trying to put this into their mouth, and eating grass.
Last year, a man who broke into a random house, ransacked the place and attempted to slash his throat in front of a mother and her four children, admitted smoking a mixture of methamphetamine and bug spray before committing the crime.
Highly Addictive
Major warned that the drug is highly addictive and even a small amount can cause an overdose. He said that his team once responded to about 12 calls for KD-related overdoses in a single day.
"We send them off to the hospital to get checked out and within two hours they may be back out there on the street doing it again. We have had the same person multiple times in one day," Major said.
Health experts said that an individual's reaction to mixed drugs like KD depends on several factors which include the concentration of the chemical, the ingredients used, and the person's physiological response to these substances.
