In Florida, they call it flakka.<\/p>\n
It has received innocent nicknames like plant food, bath salts and meow meow.<\/p>\n
Around Winona, they call it turbo, and it\u2019s the deadliest drug in town.<\/p>\n
Investigators from the Winona County Sheriff\u2019s department said the drug turbo, or known by its clinical name Alpha-PVP, can cause side effects including blood pressure and heart rate increase. Even more worrying, is the paranoia according to law enforcement officials.<\/p>\n
\u201cFits of anger, violence,\u201d Investigators said. \u201cThey often have fits of rage towards shadowy figures and animals, believing to be possessed by demons.\u201d<\/p>\n
2009<\/strong><\/p>\n Plant food, or mephedrone, begins to show up in Winona. It\u2019s sold on the streets, unlike in Duluth where it was commercially sold. <\/p>\n Shortly after plant food came to Winona, it died out, but a new hybrid called bath salts or MDPV emerged in April 2009.<\/p>\n Investigators said the names are now interchangeable and the drugs are relatively similar.<\/p>\n \u201cMephedrone went away, MDPV came out in 2009,\u201d investigators said. \u201cBy the end of 2009, we were seeing it a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n Investigators said these aren\u2019t close to household products and can\u2019t be bought at any store.<\/p>\n \u201cThey called it bath salts or plant food and say not for human consumption, and put little labels on that say that, so they could sell it,\u201d Investigators said. \u201cWe\u2019ve talked to a few users and they\u2019ve put stuff on their plants and they killed their plants.\u201d<\/p>\n Since the drugs were legal, the investigators said they would receive calls frequently. One of the investigators worked as a dispatcher during the height of the plant food crisis and said they couldn\u2019t go an eight-hour shift without getting a call about plant food. <\/p>\n \u201cEvery single day when you came to work, when it was legal, there\u2019s a call about a guy running naked down the street or taking someone to the hospital because they\u2019re high,\u201d the Investigator said.<\/p>\n One of the earliest calls they received was from a man who called about an intruder in their home. The investigators said they rushed to the man\u2019s house only to find no one there. <\/p>\n \u201cWe think there is an intruder in the house and when we got there, he said the tricky little guy went into the TV,\u201d investigators said. \u201cYou realize after speaking with him for two or three minutes, this guy is high on something.\u201d <\/p>\n After interviewing many drug users, the investigators said the drug is so potent and addicting that the paranoia and violent side effects come from when they are beginning to become sober. <\/p>\n With the drug becoming more and more popular, many police departments around Minnesota were sought help of the Winona County Sheriff\u2019s department.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it first started, we had task force guys coming over from Rochester, Olmsted County, Goodhue County, Dodge County, Houston County and they didn\u2019t know what this stuff was,\u201d investigators said. \u201cThey got educated through us.\u201d<\/p>\n With plant food and bath salts becoming more prevalent, Senator Jeremy Miller, a Winona resident, proposed a bill in legislature in 2010 to make it a schedule one controlled substance.<\/p>\n The bill passed in July 2011. <\/p>\n \u201cLuckily enough, Senator Miller is from Winona, so he could see this stuff and hear about it,\u201d Investigators said. \u201cSo we had a representative from Winona kinda push this. When you get up to the state, it pops up a little bit in some places, but they don\u2019t seem to see it as regularly as we did.\u201d<\/p>\n 2012<\/strong><\/p>\n With plant food and bath salts now illegal, calls plummeted significantly, with people being afraid to seek help due to legal repercussions.<\/p>\n Even worse, a new hybrid emerged, turbo or Alpha-PVP, giving its users an even more intense high.<\/p>\n The Minnesota legislature was able to add language to the bill, giving officers the ability to arrest people for Alpha-PVP in July 2012, a year after the initial bill passed.<\/p>\n The investigators wanted to express how Winona isn\u2019t necessarily a drug-ridden town, but rather is primarily dealing with turbo more than any other city.<\/p>\n Around the country, heroin has quadrupled in deaths according to Center for Disease Control and Prevention from 2002 to 2013 with 8,200 deaths. In Winona, the investigators said they rarely ever see heroin.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t see very much of heroin in Winona,\u201d Investigators said. \u201cLast year, I think we seized heroin on two separate occasions. The rest of the time we\u2019re having the synthetic drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the biggest issues facing the Winona County Sheriff\u2019s department is the small penalty facing turbo offenders. <\/p>\n \u201cIf I arrest someone with a tenth of gram of plant food or two kilograms of plant food, it\u2019s the same charge,\u201d investigators said. \u201cThat\u2019s where we\u2019d like to see some change.\u201d<\/p>\n The investigators said they want to go after the dealers, the people who are moving it. They have found evidence that the drugs are being shipped from China into the United States, where it\u2019s distributed throughout the country.<\/p>\n The penalty<\/strong><\/p>\n If caught with turbo in the state of Minnesota, a person could face five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. For a second offense, it\u2019s six months in a prison with fines increasing to 10 years and $10,000.<\/p>\n While this penalty seems harsh, in reality, it\u2019s not, according to the investigators. The drug charge is a felony fifth-degree drug charge, which is the lowest possible charge someone can receive.<\/p>\n According to the investigators, any kind of change doesn\u2019t look any closer than it did when the first law passed in 2011.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s any closer,\u201d Investigators said. \u201cThe efforts been local and pushing it locally, but I think the thing that kind of hampers us here, whenever someone hears about this at the state level, they keep referring to Duluth.\u201d<\/p>\n Student Outreach \u201cThey have us in a health class every semester or quarter,\u201d investigators said. \u201cWe talk about the danger of methamphetamine and marijuana. We do a drug education.\u201d<\/p>\n Why Winona?<\/strong><\/p>\n In 2015, the Southeast Violent Crime Enforcement Team seized 2,162 grams of synthetic drugs, including turbo. <\/p>\n The investigators said turbo is bought in \u201cpoint\u201d form or a tenth of a gram, valued usually at $30 a point.<\/p>\n With that number, the SVCET seized $64,860 worth of synthetic drugs alone last year.<\/p>\n The police of Winona County continue to deal with turbo, trying hard to locate exactly where the drugs are being made and who the distributors are.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no answer for it,\u201d investigators said. \u201cThere\u2019s a supply around here somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n The investigators have received calls from around the Midwest, with officers and even a concerned parent from Kansas City wondering what turbo is.<\/p>\n \u201cI had one lady call from Kansas City once and said my daughter is on turbo, or I think it was plant food at the time,\u201d investigators said. \u201cShe researched it and it came back to Winona and the issues we had here. The police officers out there had no idea what it was and had never heard of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In Florida, they call it flakka. It has received innocent nicknames like plant food, bath salts and meow meow. Around Winona, they call it turbo, and it\u2019s the deadliest drug in town. Investigators from the Winona County Sheriff\u2019s department said the drug turbo, or known by its clinical name Alpha-PVP, can cause side effects including … Continue reading Plant Food, Bath Salts, and Turbo: Winona’s Deadliest Drugs<\/span>
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\nWinona County does have the D.A.R.E program for students. The investigators make routine stops in schools in the county to talk about drugs, including Alpha-PVP.<\/p>\n