KANSAS CITY, Mo. — PCP is widely regarded as the worst kind of drug abuse police officers can confront, and Kansas City is seeing an uptick in its use.
This weekend an ambulance worker was attacked by a patient believed to be under the influence of the drug.
Videos on YouTube show it all, users high on PCP who are aggressive, punching through fences, withstanding beatings and showing no fear and no pain. Known as “wet” or “angel dust”, Drug Counselor Marsha Page-White says PCP gives users the feeling of superhuman strength.
“PCP highly concentrates up in the brain and in the part of the brain that lessens the ability to feel pain with that and gives off a sense that a person has more strength or more power then what they might have,” says Page-White.
Kansas City police believe the drug may be responsible for an attack on an ambulance worker this weekend.
“We saw the ambulance shaking like there was something going on inside,” says Wali Shaw, a neighbor of the 31-year old suspect who watched as the struggle spilled out of the ambulance. “When the doors broke open I saw him come out of the ambulance and he was on the ground in front of his house”
The suspect was soon tased and subdued by police. It’s this unpredictable and aggressive behavior that makes responding to calls like this dangerous for officers.
“There’s not a lot of filters happening at that time. To know that this is right or wrong. They think they are right and they are going to be justified in what they are doing. And what is coming at them, they think they can overcome that,” Page-White said.
Shaw says, “The abuse of drugs will bring out the bad side in people no matter what it is, if its household or under the counter or whatever it is.”
The Kansas City Fire Department would not comment on the condition of the ambulance worker.
Kansas City police are investigating the use of PCP in the city’s urban core, trying to figure out where the drug is coming from.
