The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said it is seeing a sharp increase in LSD cases in the state, including a recent case in South Georgia involving high school students.
The Jones County Sheriff’s office put out a warning to parents last month after students got sick and admitted to licking stamps with an unknown substance. Officials believe the stamps were laced with LSD.
Authorities seized 2,600 hits of hallucinogens and other synthetic drugs.
The Sheriff’s Office followed several leads and arrested five people.
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Aaron Kimbrough, 21; Laura Sellers, 17; Dylan Thomas, 17, and Aaron Gaultney, 23, have been charged with possession of a Schedule 1 substance with intent to distribute and other charges. A juvenile was also arrested.
“The type of drug it is, being a hallucinogen, it can cause severe brain damage. So we’re talking about quality of life,” GBI spokeswoman Nelly Miles said.
The GBI said it has seen a spike in LSD cases from 21 in 2014 to 137 in 2017.
“Over the past few years we hadn’t seen a lot of LSD cases, but as we looked into the 2017 numbers, we have noticed that there has been an increase in LSD cases to the crime lab,” Miles said.
Miles said there has not been an increase in deaths related to LSD, but it is a dangerous trend that the GBI will be monitoring closely. She said they do not know what's leading to the increase in cases, but parents and students should be on alert.
“We have to worry about whether or not our children will be exposed to it and that it’s out there at all and potentially coming back is what we’re concerned about,” she said.