(CAMDEN) – Senator Donald Norcross and Assemblymen Angel Fuentes and Gilbert “Whip” (D-Camden/Gloucester) have announced legislation in the works to increase penalties for those dealers selling “wet.” This announcement comes in the wake of the gruesome beheading of a two-year-old boy by his mother who then cut her own throat, and the attack on two children that left one six-year-old boy dead.
In both cases “wet” – a drug most commonly created by dipping marijuana in PCP – may have played a key role. Alone, PCP is a potent hallucinogen. Combined with marijuana, users experience any range of emotions from euphoria to extreme violence.
“Handing someone wet is like handing them a time bomb without a timer – you don’t know when it might go off,” said Senator Norcross. “Dealers who provide this deadly combination of drugs are putting a large number of people at risk, not just the user. Most tragically, these young children have lost their lives at the hands of trusted individuals who might never have conceived of such violence had they not been under the influence of this particular drug.”
The legislators have proposed the legislation in anticipation of Tuesday night’s Camden City Council Meeting, at which the council is expected to vote on a resolution asking state legislators to address the growing PCP issue in Camden.
“The prevalence of this drug in our city is an epidemic,” said Assemblyman Fuentes. “At the same time, it is a problem across the state – three deaths in Essex County have also been tied to wet this year, and there are countless police reports throughout New Jersey involving people on wet.”
The bill, which is still being drafted, will crack down on dealers providing wet by strengthening both criminal and civil liabilities against them.
“Holding drug dealers responsible for the deaths caused by individuals on wet sends the message that the drugs are not the only problem,” Assemblyman Wilson added. “If you make your money distributing substances that cause harm to others, you are just as guilty as if you held the knife.”