Liquid k2 in prisons: Pruno, or prison wine, is an alcoholic liquid made from apples, oranges, fruit cocktail, ketchup, sugar, bread, and possibly other ingredients. Sale! Heather Harris is an assistant professor of forensic science at Arcadia University who trains future chemists to use these color tests. Meyers said a big portion of the tablets cost will be covered by inmate purchases made via the service. But inside, incarcerated people are at the mercy of bureaucracies even more strongly tilted against them. "The 2 makes them crazy and crazy strong," the officer said, speaking anonymously because prison policies prevent him from speaking publicly. We have special a4 K2 infused paper for sale. The move followed the discovery of a dozen false positives linked to field tests. Prison advocates are calling for a similar suspension of the use of NARK II tests in Massachusetts prisons after more than a dozen attorneys said they were falsely accused of sending drugs to their incarcerated clients, who were then put in solitary confinement for receiving legitimate legal mail. Some state courts have been more skeptical. Corrections1 is revolutionizing the way in which the corrections community finds relevant news, A lot of the lawyers that we talked to said that theyre now driving to the prisons where their clients are locatedwhich sometimes takes hoursto hand-deliver letters to be able to communicate with their clients, Leonida said. Copyright 2023 In a second article, McPhee said verifying the presence of K2 in Hernandezs system led to a State Police raid at the Souza Baronwski Correctional Center (SBCC), the prison facility where Hernandez died. NARK only tests for the possible presence of certain chemical compounds., I refuse to believe that every defense attorney in Massachusetts is suddenly a drug dealer.. You can buy the infused A4 plain paper and write a letter to send to your buddy in prison. All rights reserved. The user puts a small amount of the suspect substance into the baggie, cracks the vials, gently shakes, and watches to see what color results. As early as 1978, the U.S. Department of Justice published standards for using drug field tests that advised the tests "should not be used for evidential purposes.". Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. Crime:the 2017 abduction and slaying of Lincoln store clerk Sydney Loofe. To combat the flood of drugs, many state prisons have taken steps like banning physical mail and used book donations, which they claim are a major source of contraband. When youre this short (of staff), it really limits your options, he said. And the list of known substances that can trigger a positive result in these tests is ever-expanding. It has had a negative impact on my health and my family, as any accusation against Mr. Ivey was effectively an accusation that I committed a serious criminal offense.. More extensive screening tests that detect K2 can cost over six times that amount, officials said. As a result, prisoners are allegedly being given solitary confinement, losing visitation privileges, or facing other punishments. When a federal judge ordered the BOP to respond to Blaisure's claims, the government lawyer preparing the response found the nearly two-year-old results of the Jefferson County Regional Crime Laboratory's test of the contents from Blaisure's pouch: "No controlled substance or dangerous drug identified," the lab had concluded. We used NIK Test A, and it was positive, so don't come bother us. Almost no one else ever does. After he exhausted his appeals within the BOP bureaucracyall deniedSteffey filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in federal court in January 2019. "I knew it was '2,'" prison lingo for K2, a synthetic marijuana that now reigns as fastest-growing drug contraband in Texas' massive prison system. Get our FREE eBook, The Age of Miracles, just for signing up! Prison police say they have also recently busted wives, cousins and children of convicts - even a grandmother - for trying to smuggle K2 into East Texas prisons. "We hold that the requirements of due process are satisfied if some evidence supports the decision by the prison disciplinary board," the Court wrote. It has become the most comprehensive and trusted online destination for correctional professionals nationwide. The latest security screening technology can help keep officers and inmates safe by mitigating the risk of unrest, illness and debt which often result from access to illicit goods and improvised or smuggled weapons. Buy potent K2 spiced sheets and sprays at affordable.. . "That functional group, however, is not specific to methamphetamine. Writing for The Fix on April 19th, Seth Ferranti described how the U.S. Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has a synthetic marijuana problem. Liquid K2 is the latest contraband problem for Nebraska prisons, jails. 4.28.2023 4:45 PM, Matt Welch Lance Lowry, president of a Huntsville union that represents correctional officers, recalled one shift a few years ago when he was working in an Huntsville-area prison. ", After spending two years going through the Bureau of Prisons' grievance process and appealing his disciplinary sanctions, fruitlessly, Blaisure filed a petition in federal court in July 2016 seeking to restore his lost good time credits. Crime:kidnapping, raping and murdering Heather Guerrero, a 15-year-old Gering newspaper carrier, in 2003. I'll pay my own money to have it sent to a lab.". The investigator linked the package to Steffey after finding an email sent to him that included the tracking number of the package. Don't come and ask us about it anymore. "A methamphetamine test might be targeting a functional group that is present on methamphetamine," Harris says. In 1989, a 4th Circuit Court of Appeals panel rejected an inmate's argument that relying solely on unconfirmed positive results to impose sanctions violated the right to procedural due process. This combination is designed to provide relief from opioid withdrawal symptoms without giving the user a high. You let it in, you bring it in. "That was really tough on me," Steffey says. Not only was he concerned about how the K2 accusations would impact him, McKenna was worried about his client. Easter says the inmates who got the K2 paper then sold it to other inmates. The Legislature made K2 illegal in September 2015. There was a problem saving your notification. "They have seizures; get super high. From the May 2023 issue, Daryl James and Erica Smith Ewing Its cost on the street: about $20 an ounce. He also made red ink marks on his hands and feet, mimicking the stigmata of the crucifixion of Christ. I talked to one dude and he said he hit it and he started rapping. On the recreation yard at dusk, clouds of smoke appear over the bleachers from all the people smoking K2. Those shops are selling Delta 8, which b. Suboxone, which requires a doctors prescription, comes in a small strip that goes under the tongue and slowly dissolves. Select the option or tab named Internet Options (Internet Explorer), Options (Firefox), Preferences (Safari) or Settings (Chrome). Liquid K2, a type of synthetic marijuana that causes erratic behavior when smoked, is being smuggled to inmates through the mail, sprayed on letters and pages of books. All rights reserved. Crime:the 2007 execution-style shooting deaths of two Grand Island men, Timothy Donohue and Edward Hall. At the Douglas County Jail and at the maximum-security Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln, letters from attorneys are being checked. ( 5 customer reviews) Buy Cannabinoid c-Liquid 5ml Online - Wholesale K2 Paper Online. "It would have been a night-and-day difference," even coming from a low-security prison, Steffey says. Subscribe to this blog to get an email every time a new post goes live! This may be called Tools or use an icon like the cog. One third reported using Spice in the previous month. In southwestern Virginia, jail officials have intercepted photos and other papers soaked in liquid suboxone, a substance used to treat heroin addiction, and have even temporarily banned inmates. It is labor-intensive. There is regular reporting on the growing presence of K2, Spice and other new psychoactive substances in the U.S. Look for a box or option labeled Home Page (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari) or On Startup (Chrome). So the apparent silence on the extensive the use of synthetic marijuana use in U.S. prisons is curious to me. "My cellie, we said, 'Please, just send it to the lab. Drug Believed To Be Sickening Prison Employees Explained By Addiction Expert CBS Pittsburgh 114K subscribers Subscribe 36K views 4 years ago An addiction expert says he doesn't understand how. When you can't dodge it, a shot is, like a punch in the mouth, something you have to eat. In 2017, correctional officers at FCI Sheridan put Albarca and his cellmate, Carlos Vasquez-Maldonado, in the SHU and accused the two of possessing drugs in their cell. Please subscribe to keep reading. These tests alone aren't admissible evidence in almost any court in the U.S., but they are considered probable cause for a police officer to arrest someone. As a result, officers told Ivey that the mail tested positive for synthetic cannabinoids, temporarily moved him to an isolated cell, accused him of drug trafficking, and charged him with several offenses in a disciplinary report, among other harms. They are both big problems for prison populations, said Dr. Michael Frunzi, senior scientist and business development manager with Smiths Detection, which makes X-ray and other detection tools. The BOP submitted pictures of the papers as exhibits in Steffey's lawsuit, but they are too low-resolution to read. Of the 950 contraband busts inside Texas prisons between January and mid-June, 477 involved illegal drugs - and 268 of those, more than half, were for possessing K2, according to state statistics. He hung himself by wrapping a bed sheet around his neck and tying it to a bar on the window of his cell. I know its costing us in terms of overtime and paper, Meyers said. Its crazy here.. paul.hammel@owh.com, 402-618-0009, twitter.com/paulhammelowh. Inmates have figured out novel ways of smuggling the drugs in, such as lacing paper with liquid K2. Once, prison screeners found K2 concealed in a baby's diapers on a visitation day. Paul covers state government and affiliated issues. The officers concede that some of their fellow guards are probably sneaking it in, as well, to make extra money on the side. Crime:2002 Norfolk bank robbery; he shot and killed Lisa Bryant, a bank employee. It is also available in clear liquid form that, in prison, can cost from $800 to $1,000 an ounce - perhaps even more in some units. To avoid that scenario, some incarcerated people are no longer accepting mail, which cuts off an important way to get in touch with their attorneys during the pandemic, the lawsuit alleges. He didnt even know what K2 was at the time, according to Leonida. Steffey says a contact of his was using a real lawyer's name to send someone else's court records to another inmate. This form of K2 is much harder to detect than traditional leafy K2 products that look more like marijuana. "They give them a shot, they send it to [regional headquarters] and say, 'Hey, we got to transfer this guy to a higher-security prison.'". All rights reserved. NARK II products havepreviously been accused of flagging herbal male enhancement productsandcotton candyas meth and breath mints as crack cocaine. (renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax). This form of K2 is much harder to detect than traditional leafy K2 products that look more like marijuana. The officer threw him in the Special Housing Unit (SHU)a sanitized term for solitary confinementfor five months, where he was held in a cell for at least 23 hours a day. Lexipol. In the past, K2 had been sprayed on easier-to-spot leafy substances. After he got out of solitary, Blaisure says he convinced BOP staffers to send the alleged narcotics to a local crime lab to be tested. And in prison, a "positive" field test can be enough to get inmates thrown in solitary confinement and stripped of other privileges. But liquid K2, when sprayed on paper, is odorless and colorless, and there are no easy field tests to determine if something has been soaked in the stuff. (Federal inmates must exhaust their administrative appeals before they can file a lawsuit, and the exhaustion process often lives up to its name.). Blaisure practiced Wicca, and as part of his observance he wore a leather pouch around his neck with sage, frankincense, salt, and myrrh inside it. Although it doesnt pose the same respiratory failure risk that fentanyl does, unlike fentanyl Suboxone is very easy to absorb through the skin. Ciaramella Frakes said Nebraska will be looking at a similar system when it rebids its contract for tablets, which are now used for inmate telephone calls. Its also a significant risk, because those COs are potentially exposed to whatever illicit substance might be lurking in the mail. "The substance was determined to be chocolate. Precise and accurate detection and confiscation of contraband in prisons can prevent drug abuse, violence and further criminal acts. Trace detection tools can help make mail inspection faster and more thorough. Instead, he was transferred to FCI Sheridan, a medium-security prison in Oregon. ALL TEST RESULTS MUST BE CONFIRMED BY AN APPROVED ANALYTICAL LABORATORY! a note for a NARK II product on Sirchies website reads. and that the data you submit is exempt from Do Not Sell My Personal Information requests. Crime: 2008 murders of11-year-old Thomas Hunter and57-year-old Shirlee Sherman, and 2013 murders of 65-year-old Dr. Roger Brumback and 65-year-old Mary Brumback. Unlike in the federal prison system, Massachusetts prisons send all field tests to outside labs for confirmation. All rights reserved. With the right tools and strategies, correctional leaders can protect their employees and catch contraband smugglers without radical policy changes that can trigger expensive lawsuits. Inside prison one sheet of K2-soaked paper can sell for as much as $6,000, so inmates are going to extraordinary lengths to get it in. Skip to content. At the Douglas County Jail, a new prevention tactic is coming soon, Meyers said. Reactions may occur with, and such compounds can be found in, both legal and illegal products.". For example, X-ray body scanners have been shown to detect physical concealment of contraband while also deterring future attempts. The evidence against Steffey is a string of suspicious emails and two field tests, which you can buy off the internet for about $2 apiece, that came back "presumptive positive" for amphetamines. By submitting your information, you agree to be contacted by the selected vendor(s) It's a versatile drug that can give birth to several forms and uses. But its worth it if we avoid a bad outcome if someone overdoses.. Contraband Suboxone and synthetic marijuana come in many forms, and inmates and their associates are endlessly inventive when it comes to smuggling them behind bars. "We tested it three different times out of two different kits to make sure that we weren't having any issue, and each time we got a positive for controlled substance," the Fort Chaffee police chief told a local news outlet. As a result of the infraction, Blaisure spent 30 days in the SHU. So the incarcerated people who are accused can either quickly accept responsibility and face lesser punishment despite being innocent, or give up privileges and possibly enter solitary confinement while awaiting more accurate lab data. Joker E-Liquid Vanilla Flavor (Mild Potency) 5ML. These are mind-altering chemicals created by humans or sprayed on dried, crushed plant material for smoking, or sold as a liquid to evaporate and breathe in cigarettes and other devices. They smoke it "and then they flip out," Steffey says. Such is the majesty of the law that a U.S. District Court judge dismissed his suit, ruling that he had suffered no deprivation of due process or cruel or unusual punishment. In October of 2015, BBC News reported how investigators concluded the use of Spice in an Oxfordshire prison contributed to an increase in violence. In July 2020, he was among the thousands of federal inmates granted compassionate release by federal judges because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Another guy thought he was God and that the end of the world was coming, slobbering and acting like a five year old. Roger Terry, an inmate in a Maryland state prison, filed a lawsuit in 2011 after he was put in solitary confinement for nearly 200 days following a positive NIK test of coffee grounds that was later invalidated by a crime lab. It ruled that the single field test afforded to many incarcerated people is "all the process due them under the Constitution and interpreting case law.". The K2 problem is the latest chapter in the cat-and-mouse game played by those seeking to smuggle contraband into prisons and jails, and those trying to keep it out. More and more, other prison officials confirm, that scene has become routine in Lone Star lockups as front-line corrections officers battle what they say seems like a rising tide of K2 use. In 2011, a United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture concluded that solitary confinement beyond 15 days constituted cruel and inhumane punishment. AUSTIN, TexasIt's the zombies that freak everybody out. There is no parole in the federal prison system, so accruing good time credit is one of the only ways that inmates can shave time off their sentences. The Very Strange New Respect for Authoritarian Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr. All rights reserved. Although lab test results later proved his innocence, Ivey was traumatized by his confinement and horrified by the potential consequences he mightve undeservedly faced, according to the lawsuit. . The restricted housing unit at Huntingdon is largely filled with prisoners whose belongings tested positive for K2. Chemists cooking up these substances are tinkering with the molecular structure to skirt DEA regulations, says Frunzi. He says it took him about four years to work his way down to that security level, and he was three months away from a possible transfer to a minimum-security federal prison camp. Shop Now Free Shipping document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); NEXT: Strange Bedfellows Oppose Improving Maines Food Sovereignty Law, Peter Bagge and Charles Oliver 11 talking about this. He was like a zombie. In 2013, Travis County, Texas, stopped accepting guilty pleas for low-level drug possession before official crime lab results came in. To say that this experience has been highly upsetting is an understatement, Newman-Polk wrote in an October 2020 letter to Massachusetts DOC Commissioner Carol A. Mici, who is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit. Theyve been using almost exclusivelyor, I think, actually exclusivelyon legal mail, Ellen Leonida, a partner at the firm BraunHagey & Borden and one of the attorneys involved in the lawsuit, said of the presumptive drug tests. Other law enforcement agencies have changed their policies over the last decade. Texas lawmakers outlawed it in 2015. So far, no prison deaths have been attributed to K2 in Texas, authorities said. Similarly, Green was confined to a cell, given a disciplinary ticket, and threatened with fees over more conclusive lab testingwhich later showed there weren't any drugs in his mail. All of these steps were taken based on flawed physical evidence. I read that K2 is in fact the No. Testifying in the case, Allison Baca, a criminalist at the California Department of Justice, said that the agency does not use the term "false positive" when talking about color tests, because they do not consider such tests to be either positive or negative. Cannabinoid c-Liquid 5ml. But police across Texas have continued to report continuing issues with K2 overdoses, including among homeless people. Best Spice Paper Worldwide. It took eight or nine officers to get him under control.". Among the precautions taken by the state, he said, has been to monitor inmate financial accounts to look for unusual deposits or spending that could be associated with purchases of K2 and other contraband. Smugglers got even more creative after corrections officials took steps to screen mail and limit where books can be obtained. It's crazy here." "I had been in the HVAC apprenticeship program for four years, and I was risking losing all that over this faulty NIK test kit," Abarca says. The New York Offices of the Inspector General declined to comment on the investigation. Staffing at the two prisons will shift immediately to two 12-hour shifts a day from three eight-hour shifts a day to allow required security p, Three inmates set fire to their cell rooms on Saturday at the Tecumseh state prison, and a staff member was seriously injured in an assault on, Signs advertising cannabis complete with large marijuana leaves have sprouted up across Nebraska. NIK Tests A and U both came back "presumptive positive" for amphetamines. And this is the rub of Steffey's argument in his lawsuit. But tens of thousands of incarcerated people in the U.S. are subjected to it for months, sometimes years, at a time. They were later told that to reverse some of those punishments, they could simply admit that McKenna intentionally sent the contraband. Nebraska prisons are implementing a similar system. But it seems the methods used to uncover K2 use need to be more accurate, as the negative consequences to inmates for false positives are so serious. A Vice article on January 29, 2016, reported how prison officers said they are getting involuntary hallucinations after entering cells where inmates had recently smoked Spice (its odorless). "The whole time they had had a negative result from the lab saying that what I possessed was plant matter, period," Blaisure says. And the compounds that the tests screen for aren't exclusive to the illegal drugs the tests are supposed to indicate. With a swab system like the IONSCAN 600 from Smiths Detection, COs can quickly test mail and other objects entering the facility for trace narcotics contamination. One such cannabinoid is gaining in popularity in prisons across the nation. "Charging between $10 for just an inch square of K2 up to $500 for a full sheet of K2," he said. The fact that this has been going on during the pandemic, when there are no contact visits allowedits really foreclosing one of the major means of communications with peoples clients, and also a way to get their court documents.. Early Wednesday morning on April 19, 2017, Aaron Hernandez was found dead in his prison cell. Best Spice Paper Worldwide. The results of this test are merely presumptive. The fluid is typically grease or oil with other proprietary substances added to thicken it. The Omaha Police Department and 16 other law enforcement agencies in Nebraska didn't fully report domestic violence statistics from 2014 through 2019. The Nebraska and Iowa prison systems, as well as the Douglas County Jail, have changed their policies on book purchases. He told me he never rapped in his life, but that was all he could do to not lose his mind. He voluntarily dismissed his 9th Circuit appeal in December. He insists it had nothing to do with drugs. "It appears that the Bureau of Prisons regularly deprives prisoners of good conduct time credit, thereby lengthening their time in prison, based on a testing protocol known for its high rate of error, without even minimal procedures to ensure that the tests are conducted correctly and that questionable test results are subject to confirmation," Steffey's appeal to the 9th Circuit, filed last August, argued. Symptoms are similar to other narcotics headache, drowsiness, disorientation, etc. Category: Liquid K2. "They don't want to hear that, because it's one of their tools that they have in their toolbox to get rid of people without question," he says. Sirchie did not immediately respond to a request for comment. One Texas corrections official declared K2 the new drug of choice, inside and outside of prison," in 2017. After waiting six or seven weeks, he asked about the results. We'll pay for it.'". We have special a4 K2 infused paper for sale. It has become the most comprehensive and trusted online destination for correctional professionals nationwide. Steffey is a former federal inmate, and a "shot" is federal prison slang for a disciplinary infractionas in, "They gave him a shot." The testimony inChaconalso established that the term "presumptive positive," as used by law enforcement and prosecutors, was largely meaningless, since the tests can't discriminate between illicit substances and the dozens of known licit substances that also trigger color reactions. Fincher's bail was placed at $1 million. Want Accessibility | K2 begins as a liquid that can be sprayed on any kind of paper product, like letters.