activists, getting out the word on the dangers of synthetic drugs. thanks to their efforts north dakota has put in new legislation banning a number of synthetics, and federally the drug that killed christian and elijah is now on the list of banned substances. the stuff is not safe just because you can order it on the internet. don t be fooled by that. don t put yourself and your family in the position that these families in grand forks found themselves. talk to your kids, that synthetic drugs are dangerous. all drugs are dangerous. this was done for the memorial for eli. his friend signed that. that came. the family of elijah stai say they do hope their son s death can be a warning to others about the dangers of synthetic designer drugs. our lives were turned upside down. our lives will never be the same. i don t know if you can really put something like that into words, what your life is like after you lose a kid. it s a horrific thing to ever have to go through for any parent
2012 law enforcement in grand forks were dealing with an outbreak of violent overdoses. a mystery drug on the streets had already killed two teenagers. we ve got multiple overdoses. we ve got two young men that have lost their lives. i mean, what s more serious than that? tim purdon is a u.s. attorney for north dakota. it was unprecedented. i had i ve been u.s. attorney now for going on four years. this is the only time we reached out to a school system, to the university and said hey, there s this danger on the streets right now that people need to be aware about. as the emergency warnings were being issued, investigators were desperately trying to find out just what this drug was, and more importantly where it came from. it took lab analysis to determine the true nature of these substances. when we learned what they were, 2c-i-nbome, 2c-c-nbome, that was new to us. 2c-i-nbome and 2c-c-nbome are synthetic designer drugs,
substance that exists, as long as it s not scheduled they will manufacture it for you specifically. it s called a custom synthesis. and ship it to you. charles carlton, who sold the drugs that killed elijah stai and christian bjerk, says he used the internet to buy much of his supply in bulk from china. there are a lot of brokers as well. like you ll order from a guy in poland and receive a package from china. and is it all labeled as research chemical not for human consumption when you get it? for the most part, yes. shanghai, china s largest city. its towering waterfront and bustling streets. it is also home to chemical companies churning out synthetics, or pure poison. in the emerging global market of the synthetic drug world the
carlton had an idea to turn his passion for synthetic hallucinogens into a business. he would limit his customers to those like him, knowledgeable and interested in experimenting with synthetic highs. his company, motion resources, with its website called motionresearch, would be a boutique drug dealership for enthusiasts. we could put in people s hands things that they wouldn t be able to get otherwise. but it was turning into a real business that it was. you could at least make a go of it. absolutely. though the company s product mimicked the illegal drug lsd, carlton says the chemicals he was selling weren t yet scheduled or banned in the united states. he set up shop in this office building, even registered with the secretary of state, and went to work. i was an employee of my own company, getting a w-2.
marijuana otherwise known as k-2. with deaths and overdoses reported almost daily. poisoned a 15-year-old girl. 16-year-old abruptly ended at just 18 years old these drugs are being marketed and sold as legal alternatives to marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, lsd, and heroin. in the last four years more than 300 synthetic designer drugs with names like spice, nbomb, and bath salts have flooded into the united states. even the popular club drug molly, which is marketed as a pure form of the drug ecstasy, is being replaced by a variety of synthetic compounds. according to d.e.a. scientists, the highs may be the same but the molecular structure is modified just enough to evade the law. these chemical companies are altering the compound ever so slightly to avoid our laws here in the united states. once they alter that chemical, it is no longer a controlled substance.