News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Putnam County Sheriff’s Department has concerns about the increased popularity of TCH-infused vape pens.
The department’s Drug Task Force Division participated in a raid Friday where an assortment of the cartridges used in these pens were seized. Sheriff Eddie Farris said he suspects the cartridges would have been distributed to minors. Farris said high school SROs have been on the lookout for the devices as they have become more prevalent.
“We’re very concerned about that,” Farris said. “It’s been on the uprise for the last year or two, so we’re going to start putting some things in place, hopefully, to try to crack down on some of the places that are selling some of those items.”
Farris said the vapes have to be individually tested to decipher if it is infused with illegal THC or just nicotine.
“Maybe we need to be more open about that and put that out for some of the parents who certainly can contact me or here at the Sheriff’s Office, and we’ll help them work through that and get some testing to be able to do that if their kid is vaping.”
Farris said that this is a problem that every community has. He also said that vaping in general, THC or not, is dangerous, according to medical experts. Farris said above all else, fentanyl and methamphetamine remain a major danger on the streets of Putnam County.
“The drug that is being submitted to the TBI crime lab the most is methamphetamine, but all drugs these days that’s submitted, just about all of them contain some portion of fentanyl within those drugs, which is, as we know, very dangerous and causes a lot of overdoses,” Farris said.
