LAS VEGAS -- A new drug that is similar to LSD, a potentially deadly hallucinogen, has police officers worried about spring break next week.
More than 300,000 students will be out and about the next week, as will police officers.
"Pool parties, any type of house parties, those will be a concern, curfew on the strip, we'll be looking for drunk driving," Metro Police spokesman Jose Hernandez said.
Hernandez said the police department will be conducting extra patrols and checkpoints and are asking parents to help officers.
"Parents, keep track of your kids, know where they're going, have a phone number, have some way of contacting them," he said.
Clark County School District Police Lt. Darnell Couthen said prescription pill parties are a big concern.
"One of the new items out there is 25I," he said. "It's something that's been identified as a new hallucinogen drug, sort of like a methamphetamine."
According to a Wikipedia entry, the drug 25I-NBOMe, is a psychedelic chemical-based drug that users take by placing it on their tongue or skin.
The police wouldn't say which school, but they arrested a student for carrying the drug that's extremely dangerous, mainly because it's so new.
"The chemical breakdown of it we don't know and that chemical breakdown can change from batch to batch," Couthen said.
Even in middle school, 15-year-old Heath Huwe said drugs are handed out like candy.
"They had pills, she had them stored in her chest area, at school," Heath said.
Which is why outside classroom walls, Heath's mother is taking no chances with any suspicious activity.
"I ask who they're going with," said Erica Crawford, Heath's parent. "I talk to the parents."
Local and state police will also be setting up random checkpoints to make sure teens are staying safe in the street during their week out of the classroom.
