Digital Drugs' At Mustang High School Have Experts Warning Of Slippery Slope

[Michael Komorn]

DIGITAL DRUGS' AT MUSTANG HIGH SCHOOL HAVE EXPERTS WARNING OF SLIPPERY SLOPE


 


As digital drugs or i-dosing appears in Oklahoma, experts warn that 
it's not the sounds themselves that should worry parents. The 
websites where the tones are sold entice young people down a slippery 
slope, they say.

Schools and drug experts are warning parents to beware of "digital 
drugs" that Mustang High School students blamed for their apparent 
intoxication.

Three students were sent to the principal's office when they appeared 
to be high on drugs or alcohol in March, said Mustang School District 
Superintendent Bonnie Lightfoot. She said the kids explained that 
they had tried something called "i-dosers."

Young people plug into i-dosers through putting on headphones and 
downloading music and tones that create a supposed drug-like euphoria.

The technology is designed to combine a tone in each ear to create a 
binaural beat designed to alter brainwaves. Whether it was kids 
faking it, the power of suggestion or a high wasn't clear to 
administrators who investigated the students' claims. Adding to the 
mystery was the fact that these kids weren't troublemakers. So the 
worried Lightfoot sent parents a letter warning them to be aware of 
this new temptation to kids.

"The parents' reaction was the same as mine. Just shocked," Lightfoot 
said. "You've got to be kidding."

Now other schools and drug experts are concerned about this trend 
just hitting Oklahoma.

"I think it's very dangerous," said Karina Forrest-Perkins, chief 
operating officer of Gateway to Prevention and Recovery in Shawnee. 
While there are no known neurological effects from digital drugs, 
they encourage kids to pursue mood altering substances, she said.

Some parents have called the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and 
Dangerous Drugs Control worried about i-dosing, said OBN spokesman 
Mark Woodward. He said the i-dosing effect is likely sort of a 
placebo rather than a valid threat to children's brain waves.

"The bigger concern is if you have a kid wanting to explore this, you 
probably have a kid that may end up smoking marijuana or looking for 
bigger things," Woodward said.

The digital drug website features advertisements enticing young 
people to buy dangerous pills, the hallucinatory herb salvia and 
synthetic marijuana.

"It's going to lead them to other web sites that will get them in 
trouble," Woodward said.

When young people go to one website to download digital drugs, 
they'll find a product line featuring titles such as "alcohol," 
"opium," "marijuana" and "orgasm." The website shows the digital 
drugs have been downloaded more than 1 million times.

To sell more, the websites encourage users to write about their 
experiences on the site. One user said animals popped up and paint 
seemed to fall from the wall. Another user wrote, "I feel nothing. 
I'm starting to wonder if this is just a big ploy to get money from 
gullible customers." Still others said they experienced euphoria or 
sensations similar to getting high on crack and other drugs.

A site says that the i-doses may not be downloaded by anyone under 18 
years of age.

"Come on. You know they are," Forrest-Perkins said. "No one over 18 
is trying to get stoned on a song."

Kids disappointed in their digital experience might try huffing paint 
or another chemical, or smoking marijuana or drinking alcohol, 
Forrest-Perkins said.

Woodward and Forrest-Perkins pointed out that no studies have 
concluded that binaural beats actually chemically alter the brain.

A 2005 University of South Florida study looked at whether children 
and young adults with ADHD could better focus by listening to 
binaural beats. But the results were inconclusive. The University of 
Virginia recently received a $357,000 grant to look at pain and 
anxiety therapies, primarily binaural beat stimulation.

Mental health counselor Jed Shlackman said he has successfully used 
CDs featuring binaural beats to help treat ADHD patients. He said 
binaural beats are relatively safe and no more dangerous than 
activities such as shopping or exercising done in excess by young people.

He said the binaural beats lack the intensity or withdrawal effects 
of some chemical drugs.

"If a parent notices a child is sitting around all the time with 
headphones on, they should look into what stresses are happening in 
the child's life ... and deal with it in a constructive way," Shlackman said.

Lightfoot said like Mustang High School parents, she's shocked over 
the digital drugs.

"What worries me is the ease in which some people can sell things to 
kids by saying that it's supposed to be mood altering," she said.

 

 

 

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[MightyMightyMezz]

I used one of the brainwave synchronizers that was on the market in the late 80's/early 90's and after fifteen minutes it had me grinning like a fool. They do work. It's kind of a shortcut to states of meditative bliss. I don't really care to rely on an electronic device to alter my brainwaves though.

 

The thing about it is it sounds like they want to ban not only mind altering substances, but certain states of consciousness. I can see brainwave scans in the future where if you are in delta or theta while awake you are punished by law.

[Zombiefied]

I guess this would kinda go along, and its been out for years. Its called a "Dream Machine". Simply putting it, it flashes light in your face at a certin speed, the flashing light changes your, I think, Alpha brain waves to Beta brain waves and when that happens it should be like your dreaming, but fully awake. This has never happened to me so I dont know. But 110 Hz sound will make me feel like my whole body is vibrating, my head the most, and when the sound is going if I have a headache, then I cant feel it, but when the sound is gone, headache comes back...

[Guest Wayne]

www.drugs.org Going to this site and just looking at it will get you sooooooo..... stoned man!

[Jipo]

I've been exploring binaural beats for the last year or two, I have the I-Doser "drug" songs, they're more euphoric then relating to drugs in my opinion. They definitely have a way to alter brain waves and what not, theres some that invoke amazingly happy thoughts while others will put the most disturbing thoughts in my head. I am a firm believer that frequencies can alter your thoughts, the concept is the left and right channels are putting out different frequencies and your brain freaks out and tries to make one frequency from the 2, however the hidden frequency is what invokes certain moods, thoughts and passion.

[+420Atheist]

So what is next? If any altering of conscience is illegal then meditation is next on the list.

[marijones]

The Monroe Institute has been a source of this kind of binaural beat recordings, combined with positive hypnotic life-affirming programming. Bonnie Lightfoot sounds like a Repuglican re-election candidate looking for a new fear to peddle, and promising to stay on top of it. War on Sound? Maybe she can announce that she's going to randomly test High School kids for the metabolites of binaural beats in their saliva or urine. She can file her investigation next to the mimeographed warnings on tie-dye shirts and banana peels. As Superintendant, she should aim her binoculars toward the Elementary playground and note who's spending a little too much of the recess on the swings. Or better, note which kids are twirling around and round only to fall back and lie on the grass. Now THAT'S the gateway drug!

[______]

First they try the i-dosers, next thing you know these kids will be listening to rock and roll music. OMG it's the debils music!!!!