New drug linked to teen's death

HOUSTON – A new type of "designer" drug is showing up on the streets of Houston and has now been linked to two deaths in our area.

This week, officials at the Harris County Institute for Forensic Sciences determined a drug going by the street name "25I" or the "new LSD" caused the death of a high school sophomore last July.

Sheriff's officials said 15-year-old Chessa Davis was attending a rave party with friends at the FunPlex on Beechnut near Hemlock Hill in July. However, investigators said the teen was too young to get inside the party so she waited in the parking lot for friends.

Officials at the Institute reported Davis "drank an unknown substance" and was then seen "flailing her arms and legs" and "did not feel well." Officials at the Institute reported Davis died within two hours of taking the drug. Toxicology reports later determined Davis had ingested a synthetic drug known as 25I-NBOMe.

This drug is reported to be similar to amphetamines and can produce hallucinations. Officials at the Institute report the drug is commonly laced on the back of brightly colored "stamps" and taken under the tongue. However, the drug can also be snorted or ingested as either a clear or pale yellow liquid.

Officials at the Institute said Davis' death is the second this year linked to this drug. The Institute determined a 21-year-old man died within six hours of ingesting the drug at another rave party. Officials said that man became violent and started attacking one his friends before slumping over and stopped breathing. 

Officials with the Institute said the drug first appeared in January of this year and since that time there have been 11 other reported cases of the drug being found.


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Award winning investigative journalist who joined KPRC 2 in July 2000. Husband and father of the Master of Disaster and Chaos Gremlin. “I don’t drink coffee to wake up, I wake up to drink coffee.”