A DRUG LISTED ON WEB AS SNURF SHOULD HAVE BEEN LABELED BARF

Council Rock School District Superintendent Mark J. Klein said his
staff usually has ears to the ground when it comes to staying on top
of dangerous teen trends.

But yesterday, the district was stumped when four sophomore boys at
Council Rock High School North in Newtown, Bucks County, became ill
after ingesting pills known as Snurf.

According to a release from the district - which cited the pills'
packaging as the source of the information - Snurf is an "herbal
supplement with mood-altering properties."

On several blogs, Snurf users liken it to the drug
Ecstasy.

"We did the Google and found out more than we needed to know about
it," Klein said.

According to the online Urban Dictionary, Snurf is a pill available on
the Internet through herbal dealers. It is often advertised as an
herbal supplement, but generally consists of pure dextromethorphan, or
DXM, a drug found in many cough syrups that can act as a hallucinogen
if taken in large doses.

Klein said the 10th-grade boys took the pills in a school bathroom
during lunch and started to feel the symptoms "almost
immediately."

"To the best of my knowledge they were simply sick, sick to the
stomach," he said. "They were not in an altered-state-of-mind kind of
situation."

School administrators identified the four students who took the pills
when one of them reported to the school nurse.

Klein said that the boy in possession of the pills handed them over
without incident.

Although only three of the four boys showed signs of illness, all four
were taken for treatment to St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne,
where they were met by their parents.

Newtown Township Business Manager Jean Tanner said police would
analyze the pills to determine if they contain any illegal substances.

Klein said that the pills can be purchased over the Internet but that
it would be up to police to decide the legality of the pills.

A Drug Enforcement Administration spokeswoman said she had never heard
of Snurf and did not think it was a controlled substance.