Drug Lab Reports ‘Designer’ Acid Delivers A Real Gold Rush

It’s nothing like California in 1849, but drug users in Spokane County may have stumbled upon their own gold rush.

The Spokane County Sheriff’s Department recently confiscated more than 100 tabs of LSD with tiny bits of authentic gold in each. The black, 1-inch squares contain minuscule pyramids tinged with thin, gold flakes.

The sheriff’s department released a laboratory report Thursday verifying that the gold was genuine. Several weeks ago, the Spokane Police Department seized an undisclosed quantity of the golden acid, too.

“I don’t understand the significance of the gold flake and neither did the drug lab, but it could be kind of a designer drug,” said Lt. David Wiyrick. “Whatever the case, it’s bizarre-looking stuff.”

Aside from the gold flakes, the tabs are made of chemicals similar to those found in other LSD tabs that police have confiscated. Three hits of LSD usually cost about $10, but the sheriff’s department didn’t know how much the “designer” acid costs.

“This is just a different way of packaging LSD,” Wiyrick said. “I don’t know how lucrative the guy’s business is, but if he’s using real gold, that’s unusual.”

Each hit contains about one microgram of lysergic acid diethylamide, a crystalline compound that produces delusions resembling those occurring in a psychotic state.

A sheriff’s deputy arrested a man last Sunday who was carrying 164 hits of the goldflecked drug.

Ryan Kraft, 19, of Newport, Wash., was arrested for felony possession of a controlled substance with intent to manufacture and deliver.

The county has no evidence to indicate that Kraft was the manufacturer.