USE OF LACED POT A GROWING PROBLEM

It's a dangerous mix that can often lead to violence, experts say.

The practice of dipping marijuana cigarettes in embalming fluid has been
around for years. But some experts say the potent combination is becoming
more of a problem in New Jersey, where it figured into a recent shootout
that left one user dead, one wounded and one other person injured.

This drug cocktail of sorts is also a problem in places such as Easton and
Bethlehem.

"They call them dippers," said Tim Munsch, executive director of the Lehigh
Valley Drug & Alcohol Intake Unit.

He said dippers are sometimes laced with PCP, cocaine, or even heroin.

Munsch said he hasn't seen a recent rise in the practice locally, but young
drug users in the Lehigh Valley have been smoking dippers for at least 20
years.

"Adolescents tend to get whatever they can," he said.

Munsch said if there's a lull in the drug supply, users will turn to the
dangerous practice of using inhalants.

Inhalants are common products found right in the home and are among the
most popular and deadly substances kids abuse, experts say.

Teens use inhalants by sniffing fumes from containers; spraying aerosols
directly into the mouth or nose; bagging, by inhaling a substance inside a
paper or plastic bag; huffing from an inhalant-soaked rag; or inhaling from
balloons filled with nitrous oxide.

"But marijuana is the leading drug all the time," Munsch said.

He said PCP is a very strong and potent drug that can lead to poor impulse
behavior, agitation and anger. The so-called dippers laced with PCP or
other drugs can enhance a user's emotional problems, he added.

In New Jersey, police said 20-year-old Ibn Berger had been smoking joints
laced with formaldehyde shortly before Berger began a shooting spree Sunday
night at the Seth Boyden housing complex in Newark.

Berger fired shots at two police officers who returned fire, shooting him
in the head and killing him. Berger also shot two others -- including his
friend -- before being killed.

Such violence is typical of users of the chemical-laced pot, according to
David Kerr, director of Integrity House, a Newark drug treatment center.

"It just whacks their brains out," he said. "They're smoking pot, and they
dip it and they go berserk."

Dippers are also known on the street by other nicknames including "illy,"
"leek," "crazy Eddie," "wet," "amp" and "purple rain."

Bob Parsons, a counselor who works in a Hackettstown-based Intensive
Outpatient Program for those suffering from drug addictions and alcoholism,
said the drug combination is not much in vogue in that area.

Parsons said the marijuana mixed with embalming fluid puts users in "a
crazy hallucinogenic type of reality."

He said users often can't stand up and become panicky.

"It's not a good high," Parsons said.

The counselor said some users even mix marijuana with jet fuel when they
can't get their hands on formaldehyde.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.