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Dangerous New High
 Kids Use Embalming Fluid as Recreational Drug
By Joann Loviglio
A chemical used to preserve the dead is becoming an increasingly popular drug for users looking for a new and different high, one which often comes with violent and psychotic side effects, officials say.
The chemical is embalming fluid, and users - mainly teens and twentysomethings - are buying tobacco or marijuana cigarettes that have been soaked in it, then dried. They cost about $20 apiece and are called by nearly a dozen names nationwide, including "wet," "fry" and "illy."
"Some people around here think it's just a city problem but it's not," said Julie Kirlin, a juvenile probation officer in Reading, about 50 miles northwest of Philadelphia. "Whether they live in a million-dollar house or a $5,000 house, kids who are smoking pot or crack and are looking for a different type of high are turning to wet."
The high that users experience depends on what they're really getting. Many users who want embalming fluid often get it with phenylcyclidine (PCP) mixed in. Embalming fluid is a compound of formaldehyde, methanol, ethanol and other solvents.
"We test for heroin, cocaine and marijuana but not for this," Kirlin said. "Numbers-wise, I think we're missing a whole lot."
Adding to the confusion is that PCP has gone by the street name "embalming fluid" since the 1970s.
"What they're getting is often PCP, but the idea of embalming fluid appeals to people's morbid curiosity about death," said Dr. Julie Holland of New York University School of Medicine, who has studied drugs including wet. "There's a certain gothic appeal to it."
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