DRUG USERS TURNING TO EMBALMING FLUID

A chemical used to preserve the dead is becoming an increasingly popular
drug for drug users looking for a new and different high, one that often
comes with violent and psychotic side effects, officials say.

A chemical used to preserve the dead is becoming an increasingly popular
drug for drug users looking for a new and different high, one that often
comes with violent and psychotic side effects, officials say.

It's embalming fluid, and users - mainly teens and twentysomethings - are
buying cigarettes or marijuana that have been soaked in it, then dried.
They cost about $20 apiece and are called by nearly a dozen names
nationwide, including "wet," "fry" and "illy."

"Some people around here think it's just a city problem, but it's not,"
said Julie Kirlin, a juvenile probation officer in Reading. "Whether they
live in a million-dollar house or a $5,000 house, kids who are smoking pot
or crack and are looking for a different type of high are turning to 'wet'."

"I didn't see it before, but I'm seeing it now," said Bucks County District
Attorney Diane Gibbons. "I can't say it's widespread, but I have noticed a
couple of cases I've seen it in since I've become district attorney last
January."

Gibbons said she isn't aware of any drug user dying from smoking
embalming-fluid-soaked tobacco or marijuana. In Morrisville, however,
14-year-old Kareem Watts fatally stabbed a 33-year-old neighbor more than
70 times in May 2000 after smoking "wet" he purchased in Trenton. The boy,
who said he took "wet" to quiet the voices in his head, is serving a
seven-year sentence in a juvenile facility.

Twenty users interviewed for a 1998 study said effects include visual and
auditory hallucinations, euphoria, a feeling of invincibility, increased
pain tolerance, anger, forgetfulness and paranoia.

The chemical poses an added problem for police because it is legal.
Formaldehyde can be purchased in drug stores and beauty supply stores (it
is also an ingredient in nail care products). It's also available in many
school science labs.

Hydrol Chemical Co. in Yeadon, an embalming fluid supplier to funeral
homes, has received one or two calls with questions from "parents who found
a bottle of embalming fluid in the freezer or in their child's room," chief
chemist Richard Hoffman said. There also have been reports of embalming
fluid thefts from funeral homes.