There's a deadly new drug sold over the internet that teens are getting their hands on.
Experts are calling the problem of opioid drug abuse an epidemic.
According to the United States Drug Enforcement Agency, the new drug is being blamed for nearly 50 deaths nationwide, mostly affecting teens who are finding it through secret websites.
Macomb County Judge Linda Davis, President of Families Against Narcotics, knows firsthand how addictive heroin like drugs can be.
"Police officers have gone back to the same house three times in one day and revived someone that's overdosed on narcotics," she says. “We've had two deaths of young people in my drug court that died of overdoses. One while in drug court the other after he had graduated."
The Federal Drug Enforcement Agency has now issued its highest alert over the drug known as U-47700 - also called Pink.
It's manufactured in laboratories in China and teens are ordering and using it without knowing how powerful it is.
White Lake Township Acting Police Chief Dan Keller recalls the death of a 19-year-old man on October 5.
"The death we had in White Lake, the substance was in powder form,” he says. "The most dangerous thing about it is you don't know what you're getting. You're getting the stuff in a package that says 'computer equipment.'"
Far more powerful than Heroin, seven times stronger than Morphine, the drug was disguised in a package labeled for a USB drive.
Dr. Roy Soto is a top physician at Beaumont and part of Governor Snyder’s new task force is raising awareness about opioid abuse.
"These medications made synthetically in a lab are much more powerful than morphine with a much bigger high, more people want to buy it but the side affects are much worse," he says. "They can make you sleepy, drowsy and euphoric. Meaning you feel really good but they can also make you not breathe as well as you normally would."
Judge Davis says teens often don't realize they're endangering their lives by experimenting with these unknown drugs.
"There's no turning back once you're addicted to these drugs," she says. "They think they are going to be somehow different and dodge the bullet. You really have to hit your low before you are ready to change your life."
The judge agrees with police and medical experts who say saving lives starts with more awareness.
"It's about educating yourself. These choices you are making, forever change your life,” she says. “Go to an AA meeting and talk to some kids who pushed that button and made those choices."
Davis urges parents to keep kids safe by monitoring their text messages, drug testing them and disposing of any unused medications that could be left in the home.
Also, don't be fooled if those secret websites don't show up in a web browser.
For more info on how to protect your children just go to http://www.familiesagainstnarcotics.org/.
