Drugs 'wake-up call' for parents after six hallucinating teens rushed to hospital

A drugs incident which saw six teenagers rushed to hospital after taking drugs has been called a “wake-up call for parents”.

The teenagers started fitting and hallucinating at an address in Northload Street, Glastonbury in the early hours of Saturday morning, around five minutes after taking a drug they believed to be 2CB, a stimulant with effects similar to LSD and ecstasy.

Eye witness accounts on Facebook said the teenagers began to suffer fits, were foaming at the mouth and tearing at their skin.

Another is believed to have fallen down the stairs, injuring himself, which added to their distress.

The teenagers were helped by their friend Jai Woods who hadn’t taken the drug, and carried out a ‘juggling act’ moving from friend to friend, trying to keep them in the recovery position while waiting for the ambulance to arrive.

In a Facebook post that was shared by hundreds of people online, he said:

“I watched as my bloody, crazed friends were restrained or put on a stretcher one by one until the house was empty.

“Four hours ago, everything was fine, and then six of my friends were on their way to hospital, two on ventilators because they were failing to breathe for themselves.

“There was a spare 2CB hit, which I was offered.

“After a minute to think I turned it down. If I had taken the drug, there would of been no-one to help.”

Mayor of Glastonbury Ian Tucker said: “Everybody is very relieved that this wasn’t a tragedy thanks to the quick actions of Jai.

“Perhaps everybody needs to go on a basic first aid course.

“The dealers are just looking to make money out of everyone. People need to be careful of what’s being passed around.”

“I think it’s going to be a wake-up call for parents – many are not aware of what’s out there and need to be conscious of the risks.”

A spokeswoman for Great Western Ambulance Service said six ambulances went to the address at 1.30am.

She said the patients were in “various levels of consciousness” when they arrived.

Three were taken to Musgrove Park Hospital, in Taunton, and three were taken to Yeovil District Hospital.

Inspector Justin French said two of the teenagers were initially put on a life support machine in intensive care, and they remained in the unit being monitored.

One of the teenagers may have been left with lasting kidney damage as a result of the drug, and another snapped a tendon in his hand while under its influence.

A man has been arrested on suspicion of possessing Class B drugs and released on bail.

Inspector French said he believes this is an isolated incident, but investigations are under way.

Inspector Mark Nicholson from Wells Police Station said: “Until we get some toxicology we don’t know what the substance was.

“We need to establish whether it was a rogue batch or if it was these young people’s reaction to what they took. We really want to source the drugs for safety’s sake.

“CID are involved now due to the seriousness of the case. We would like to say that it’s dangerous to take drugs as you don’t know what effect it will have.”

In a further Facebook post, Jai wrote: “It doesn’t matter what it’s called – MDMA, ketamine, 2CB, 2CP, 25i, MDA, whatever.

“Unless you made it, you don’t know what its been cut with, or if what you’re being sold is what you think it is.

“It doesn’t matter if you’ve taken it 100 times before, from the same source. It doesn’t matter if you consider yourself a drug hardened, experienced taker or a first timer.

“You never think its going to happen to you until it does. My friends got lucky.

“Without me being there people almost certainly would have died.”