EAST WINDSOR: PCP police scare

By Doug Carman, Staff Writer
    EAST WINDSOR — One cigarette lit up township police headquarters on One Mile Road in all the wrong ways Monday morning, requiring a HazMat team to clear the area.
    According to police, three people were treated, including a police officer and an EMT, who were taken to area hospitals and later released after they were exposed to a cigarette allegedly laced with PCP.
    Police said the incident began at 10:34 a.m. Monday, when they escorted an unnamed male from a municipal court session after he reported feeling ill. The man said he smoked the cigarette and said he was having a bad reaction to it.
    According to police, an officer found the cigarette in the man’s possession but then started feeling light-
headed himself. By then, an ambulance from Capital Health System had been dispatched to the scene to treat the suspect.
    In addition to the dazed officer, ýPage=001 Column=001 OK,0000.00þ
township police said one of the EMTs treating the man felt the same lightheadedness, prompting police to request a Hamilton hazardous materials team to decontaminate the ambulance, as well as the three people allegedly thought to be exposed to the substance.
    The police officer and the suspect were taken to Robert Wood Johnson hospital in Hamilton, while the EMT was taken to Capital Health Regional Medical Center in Trenton. According to police, all three individuals were treated and later released.
    Phencyclidine, or PCP, is also known as “angel dust,” ýPage=003 Column=002 OK,0010.00þ
which is a recreational drug formerly used as an anesthetic agent. Users experience hallucinogenic effects.
    Primary psychoactive effects of the drug last for a few hours, but the drug can affect the body for several days.
    The substance in question was described as PCP-laced cigarette, which is also known as a “sherm stick.” It is essentially a cigarette that has been immersed in a liquid form of the drug and allowed to dry. The cigarette is then smoked for its hallucinogenic and intoxicating properties.
    Smoking a laced cigarette, which is also known as a “dippy,” “fry stick,” “wet stick,” or “happy stick,” has been known to numb the body.
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East Windsor Police Lt. James Monahan said it would take a few weeks of additional lab testing to verify whether the substance was actually PCP. He said he wasn’t immediately sure the reactions of those on the scene were characteristic of the kind of exposure they had.
    Lt. Monahan said he did not think the EMT or officer came in direct contact with PCP, even though they were in “close proximity” to the substance.
    Lt. Monahan also said no evacuation of the police headquarters was needed.
    According to police, they are still investigating the incident, and charges are pending.
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