Laced marijuana continues to concern health officials

By Rachael Wilkerson

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    INDIANAPOLIS (WRTV) — Indianapolis and surrounding counties continue to be a corridor for drugs.

An emerging trend that is concerning health officials right now is laced marijuana. That’s on top of fentanyl and other deadly drugs flooding the area.

“The biggest thing that we continue to see is you have fentanyl, heroin and methamphetamine. We’ve had some significant seizures of cocaine as well,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Michael Gannon. “I’m talking in the hundreds of kilograms that are passing through our area. talking in the hundreds of kilograms that are passing through our area of responsibility.”

Assistant Special Agent in Charge Gannon said the exchange from one drug dealer to another often leads to drugs being laced with a substance to make them more powerful.

“Those are the most dangerous drugs that we continue to see, and there’s always some targeting of younger kids at younger ages with marijuana, and for me, being with DEA for 26 years, that’s a very scary drug and that is often the gateway drug that leads individuals to use other drugs. So keep away from all drugs, especially that, and it’s important to note with the marijuana, the THC levels are the highest they’ve ever been. So that really can affect the brain and mental health issues that can come up with a prolonged use with that,” said Gannon.

Hamilton County Coroner Jeff Jellison issued a public health warning last week after 4 people overdosed from laced weed. He said those overdoses involved KD, marijuana sprayed with a pesticide.

“Typically, it’s roach killer, something like Raid, that kind of thing,” said Jellison. “When you knowingly take marijuana and spray pesticide on it, that’s a real mental health problem,” he said.

More cases could be out there, but it’s not typically screened on toxicology reports unless investigators suspect it.

“We are seeing the spike here in this county from a couple of weeks ago. You’re seeing a lot of it in Marion County,” said Jellison.

He’s also seeing overdose deaths from black market drugs like OxyContin and Adderall being laced with fentanyl.

“There’s no quality control, it’s being cut with fentanyl. One pill may be good and another pill may kill you,” he said.

In Marion County, Gannon said the increased awareness, collaboration and investigations have led to a decrease in fentanyl-related deaths.

“In 2023, [overdose deaths] went down from 841 to 701, and it went down from 641 to 543. This past year, we had almost a 50% reduction with the 543 fentanyl deaths, going to 296. So, that’s very important and we have a lot of work to keep doing, but I think we’re in the right trajectory to keep doing that,” said Gannon.

They both said the bottom line is for parents to talk to their children about the danger of drugs.

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