Parents in Pennsylvania have a little more to worry about than normal after a group of four school children was taken ill after allegedly consuming a legal high known as Snurf pills that had been bought online.
Legal highs, sometimes referred to as herbal highs, are often sold in smoking shops or else in online stores. There are a variety of legal highs available, with one of the most popular among older consumers being salvia divinorum.
Users smoke salvia as they would smoke cannabis, but the effects are totally different. Users of salvia often experience the sensation of leaving their bodies while hallucinating at the same time.
Snurf pills aren’t quite so potent, but experts are still unsure exactly what the pills contain. After studying the effects of the pills on users, some experts have come to the conclusion that they must contain at dextromethorphan (DMX), the cough suppressant ingredient found in many medicines.
About one tenth of kids in grade 7-12 have tried DMX before, which is a scary statistic for parents. Even scarier is the news that kids are turning their backs on illegal drugs in favor of these so-called herbal highs.
Parents in Pennsylvania have since been trying to ban websites from selling Snurf pills to children, but given the uncontrollable nature of the Internet and the fact that the pills are not illegal, the battle is far from over.
As well as Snurf pills and salvia, anybody with an Internet connection can hop online and order a range of legal highs with supposed effects ranging from making users feel more alert to boosting their sex drive.
Not all the legal highs work quite as well as they are touted, with many simply giving users a headache or an upset stomach.
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