Deadly Drug Hits Streets (11/10/13)

Date: Tues, September 10, 2013

Location: Lantern Hill, California

Media: Local Print, Television & Online Media Outlets

A DEADLY drug which has claimed five lives in as many weeks across the greater Monterey area has hit Lantern Hill streets in large quantities.

Police today issued a warning to the community about the dangerous substance which they say may be selling as ecstasy.

The dangerous substance, known on the streets as Bionic E, is typically sold as either grey mottled tablets, or a mixture of grey tablets and powder tablet fragments, or grey off-white powders.

Some recent samples of Bionic E were stamped with an "E" and there has been one reported sample which detected methylamphetamine along with PMMA.

Bionic E has been attributed to the deaths of five people in the surrounding area over the past five weeks.

The death of a Mayfield teen was also attributed to Bionic E (at the time simply called BE) in September last year.

Bionic E is a prohibited drug, meaning it is a criminal offence to possess, sell or supply it.

"Anyone in possession of such substances is advised to avoid taking the drugs and to destroy them immediately," police said in a statement today.