Parents Warned After Mountain View Student Overdoses On New Psychedelic Street Drug
MOUNTAIN VIEW (CBS SF) -- Parents of students at a South Bay high school have been warned about a newly-discovered psychedelic drug after one student overdosed on it and was hospitalized this week.
A warning letter to Mountain View High School parents said it's believed the substance is a synthetic drug known as "DOC" (2,5-Dimethoxy-ChloroAmphetamine), which is similar to LSD and combines hallucinogenic and amphetamine chemicals.
The drug has been around since the early1990s but may be relatively new on the high school scene.
Police say DOC is unpredictable and potentially lethal. "Manufactured drugs are particularly dangerous because the effects aren't known," Mountain View Police Sgt. Saul Jaeger. "It's putting an unknown substance in your body, and it could be the last time you put anything in your body."
Parents Warned After Mountain View Student Overdoses On New Psychedelic Street Drug
The boy was found unconscious on the Stevens Creek Trail which runs close to the high school, according to the letter sent by Mountain View police Chief Scott Vermeer and Mountain View Los Altos High School District Superintendent Barry Groves.
He was taken to the hospital and is expected to recover.
"As a parent we think our kids are safe in school, but we don't know how big this situation is, or how dangerous it is with drug dealers everywhere," said one Mountain View HS parent Roberto Canaan.
Students said the teenager who overdosed was a 16-year-old sophomore and not the type of person they thought would do drugs. "I didn't know who it was at first when they announced it," said Canaan's son, Aaron, a sophomore. "But friends later said it was him, and I was like … I couldn't believe it."
Students also said they now know more than they did before about DOC, but it was already known as an available drug.
Investigators said they were trying to determine how the student got hold of the drug and what distribution network there may be.
Police were also police are working with the school to put together a forum to tell parents about the threat.
