In Loretto, Tennessee, the police department is asking residents to stop flushing their drugs such as methamphetamine in the toilet, in order to prevent “meth-gators.”
The Police Department posted on Facebook on Saturday, that they found an occupant of a home which they had a search warrant for, trying to flush down paraphernalia and methamphetamine in his toilet.
Although the attempt from the suspect was unsuccessful, the officers used this incident to remind of the harm they’re causing the environment using their drugs.
“Folks, please stop flushing your drugs, our sewer guys take great pride in releasing clean water to the water in the creek. But Ducks, Geese, and other creek occupying animals are definitely not ready for meth, and it’s shuddering only to think what an all-hyped—up animal which is on meth would do.”
The Facebook post warns that the flushed meth could make its way straight into the Shoal Creek, down the Tennessee River in North Alabama and it can be consumed by alligators.
Police said that we would be creating gators on meth if the drugs have really made it that far in Shoal Creek, and in the Tennessee River. They had enough methed-up animals to deal with for the past weeks, without our help. If you have any drugs you want to dispose of, please give us a call so we can get rid of them for you in a proper way, instead of just flushing them in the toilet.
But an alligator biologist and coordinator of laboratories in the department of biology at the University of Florida, Kent Vliet, said that he has never once in his life heard of an alligator on methamphetamine, ” I have been working with alligators for about 40 years. And on that basis, I can generally answer any question given to me about them”
This one has totally surprised and threw me for a loop,” Mr. Vliet told NBC News.
Vliet said, who is not in any way, shape, or form a veterinarian, that he participated in a study in which gators were dosed with antibiotics, the animals had to be injected instead of just feeding them the drug in order to see the sustained effect.
“I would guess that the gators might be affected by it, but they tend to not react to drugs in the same way humans do, and I don’t know if it would take a little or a lot to get the animal to do something on meth,” Vliet said. “I think it’s a totally ridiculous notion. If you flush meth in the toilet, it is just going to be diluted.”
Vliet furthermore explained how people who are not familiar with gators tend to over-exaggerate their dangers, adding that the reptile does not consider humans to be food or something they want to harm.
The Facebook post’s that mention the animals which are on meth, might be a reference for an incident of a caged “attack squirrel” who was believed to be on methamphetamine in order to keep it aggressive.
The alleged “attack squirrel” which was on meth, was discovered during the execution of a search warrant on a suspect, whom the police believed has controlled substances in his possession.
However, officials in the area claimed that there was no way you can test the squirrel for meth safely.
