Drugs, vapes are often ‘Hidden in Plain Sight’

It’s been observed that you can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.

But that doesn’t keep people from trying.

And it gives Micki Kimble a soapbox from which to deliver her message in an attempt to prevent overdose deaths and educate adults about paraphernalia teens use to keep drugs and vapes hidden in plain sight.

Nicki Kimble

Kimble, special projects coordinator for Sallisaw NOW Coalition, held business and community leaders spellbound last week at the Sallisaw Chamber of Commerce monthly membership luncheon, providing an eye-opening glimpse into current efforts by teens to obfuscate delinquent behavior by using common, everyday items to hide drugs or disguise vape items.

“As parents, grandparents, anyone who works with youth, we need to keep our eyes open. Anything we place in our body is gonna have an effect, either positive or negative. Food is great, water is great; we put too much of it in our body, it has a negative effect. You put any type of drug in your body, it’s gonna have an effect,” Kimble told her audience at the People Inc. Conference Center.

She then segued into how teens are deceiving adults when it comes to possession of vape materials and drugs. That’s where the drugawareness program “Hidden in Plain Sight” comes in.

Capitalizing on the idea that something can be both conspicuous and inconspicuous simultaneously, companies have developed a wide array of common, everyday items so elaborate for hiding drugs and disguising vape items, gadget junkie James Bond would be proud.

Kimble mesmerized her audience with a cavalcade of innocuous items intended for use in one way, but which have been perverted for use in a more sinister manner.

Kimble held up a writing pen and revealed that attendees who signed in for the luncheon, signed in with a clandestine item teens use to vape and remain undetected.

“It works. You can sign in with it, you change the ink in it, it has a charging port. This is one of our ‘Hidden in Plain Sight’ items,” Kimble said to the amazement of many.

“We took this to the schools this year and showed several teachers. My daughter goes to Gans, and her science teacher [now] no longer allows them to use pens. He told his students, ‘You will now use pencils, because I’m not getting tricked.’

“So this is the culture that our children are seeing. This is what’s marketed to them. I got this online for $16. All I had to do was click that I was the age of 21. So these items are priced low, it’s easy to replace and there’s no verification system on that.”

Kimble then presented several “Hidden in Plain Sight” items — “everyday things that could be something else; things that can be easily put in a pocket and carried around” — including a plastic water bottle (containing water), hair brush, metal beverage container, lint roller, Axe deodorant container, hair scrunchy, baseballstyle cap, key fob, belt buckle, hollow batteries, hollow cans, books, breath mint container, chapstick and lipstick, DVD case, eyeglasses case, hand sanitizer and umbrella.

All the items have hidden compartments to obscure drugs or vapes, and Kimble said all the items were purchased online from Walmart or Amazon, which did not require age or use verification. Available from the online retailers under “concealment items,” Kimble said the items target “a certain demographic,” and “are very cheap — nothing was over $20.”

Chamber president Marley Abell then voiced what every parent in the room was thinking: “Well, I’m gonna leave here and run home and go through my kids’ bedrooms.”

But Kimble doesn’t want one bad apple to spoil the bunch. Her cautionary tale encourages adults to learn to spot signs of possible substance use and risky behavior, to see a teenager’s environment with new eyes in order to detect dangers and promote intervention.

“Just because somebody has something in their room doesn’t mean that there’s hidden substances in it,” she warned. “I’m gonna be looking at an individual’s behavior. Has their behavior changed, or are they showing signs of substance misuse or abuse?

“With students, we’re looking at grades and hobbies. Have their grades decreased? Have their attitudes changed? How is their hygiene? Are they no longer interested in things that they used to be? Were they really into sports and now they no longer care? There’s been some change within their life. As an adult, I’m gonna say, ‘what’s going on?’

“Their frontal lobes are still developing, so we want to give our children the best chance we can at a bright, functional future.”

What’s at stake

While secrecy and contraband are the over-arching effects of “Hidden in Plain Sight,” the malevolent foundation is built upon the toll drugs take, especially with unintentional overdose deaths.

“Unintentional overdose deaths are now the leading cause of individuals ages 12 to 34, so this is a big demographic that this is affecting,” Kimble said, “and it’s unintentional overdose deaths because they’re not aware that there is fentanyl within the items that they’re purchasing. Any item that comes from the street, not from a pharmacy, 7 out of 10 of those are gonna have fentanyl in it.

“We try to educate our youth not to try things. When we were younger, our generation may have tried things, and that’s all it would have been. Now it’s something that costs them their life from the very first time that they try it.”

Kimble uses the example of an online quiz testing one’s ability to identify fake drugs from real drugs. “If you had to think twice, then you could be dead,” she lectures teens.

She then reminded her audience of the 2023 Webbers Falls incident in which seven boys overdosed at school, during school, on school property. The teens were smoking a THC vape, which was laced with crushed opioids. One boy was “almost gone” before the opioid overdose reversal medication Narcan was administered.

“It’s really taken at face value when someone says ‘this is what’s in this vape,’ that’s what people take it as,” Kimble says, noting that meth vapes are used to manage withdrawal symptoms. “They can drive down the road while they smoke methamphetamine, and no one knows what they’re smoking.

“We’ve really, really tried to educate our youth. If you have a vape, you’re not the age of 21 to be able to have that. You’re entrusting your life with whatever your sibling told you was in it, whatever your friends brought to school and are sharing. Literally, your life is at stake when you share those things. Sharing is not nice when it’s medication and things like that,” Kimble said.

“We also have an increase in edibles. When we look at the levels of THC that’s in stuff … when my mother’s generation was young, the THC level would have been like if you were holding your breath. My generation would have been 3% to 6% THC. Now the medicinal is going to start at 12% THC.”

Kimble said THC also comes in other forms, such as a dab, a wax concentrate that is 70% THC, as well as a cannabis diamond, or THC crystalline, which is a concentrate that can be smoked or vaped, which runs 90% to 99% THC.

“These things are easily accessible within our state,” she said.

Kimble also warned that ’shrooms and LSD are making a huge comeback, and are available for purchase in different forms, such as candy bars.

Additionally, there are dietary supplements — “they call it gas station heroin” — which do not have an age restriction, so children can purchase it, and are usually not challenged by a cashier.