Parents Warned to Watch for New Drug MXE

A student from the Spring-Ford Area School District overdosed on May 8 on the drug methoxetamine, or MXE, according to Limerick Township Police.

MXE, or methoxetamine, is a synthetic drug used as a research chemical. Its effects are similar to ketamine, a powerful animal anesthetic. It's packaged like a supplement or protein powder and is purchasable online.

While it's legal in the United States, it has been banned in other countries, according to Fox 29 News.

"If that one girl has it in our high school, there's others that have it," Detective Matt Daywalt, of the Limerick Township Police Department, said.

"It's rarer than like marijuana," SFHS Senior Ronnie Chrisman said.

Chrisman told a Fox 29 reporter that students know it as ATM, MXE, mexxy, or K-MEX. "Some people have been taking it in school."

Other students told a Fox 29 reporter that they tried it. One student, who didn't appear on camera in the Fox 29 report, described it this way: "It makes you happy, honestly. It makes your mind not think of bad stuff."

"MXE is a nightmare from hell. It is trouble with a capital T," said Dr. Mike Cirigliano, of the University of Pennsylvania, to Fox 29 News. "These drugs can have serious, serious consequences. They can have toxicity to the brain, they can leave you unable to walk, to think."

The Limerick police department told Fox 29 that they just learned about MXE last week. 

“We have thousands of teens in the township, and it would be foolhardy to think that others haven’t tried it but I don’t think it is a widespread problem,” Limerick Police Chief William Albany told the Pottstown Mercury.

Police told Fox 29 that it is up to parents to talk to their kids about this drug, but parents should watch internet browsers to see if kids are ordering online.