Portland Police: Pcp Is Back -- `Sherm' Introduced To Pacific Northwest By California Gangs

PORTLAND - An illegal drug made popular in the 1970s is making a comeback among Portland-area gangs, and local law-enforcement officers are worried about potential violence it causes in users.

The drug is called sherm, or liquid PCP, and it's poured over cigarettes, marijuana joints or anything smokable. Once dried, the drug offers a long-lasting high that makes users psychotic, violent and gives them almost superhuman strength.

Police say California gang members introduced sherm to the Pacific Northwest.

"Sherm is the stylish thing to do since the people who bring it here are from California," said Detective Neil Crannell of the Portland Police Bureau.

Robert Hernandez, a narcotics detective for the Los Angeles Police Department, said sherm has been a fixture in California for at least 20 years and has become especially popular among gang members in the past few years. He says the drug's effects are similar to heroin and methamphetamine.

"They are real calm, but they can get triggered easy and gain incredible strength," Hernandez said. "They can throw you 20 feet. Someone could break all the bones in their body, and they wouldn't stop fighting."

Until recently, many Portland police did not recognize sherm or its effects, but now they're trying to get up to speed by attending workshops.

"It's a big deal," said Officer Willie Goff of Portland's Gang Enforcement Team. "Informants said we were stopping them (people with sherm), but we didn't know what it was."

PCP was developed in the 1950s as an intravenous anesthetic for humans, but side effects, such as hallucinations and paranoia, caused the drug to be discontinued. But in the 1960s, it started showing up on the street and was called angel dust, a powder form of PCP.

Crannell said he began seeing a resurgence of people with symptoms associated with PCP in 1995 and noticed sherm and sherm cigarettes on the street in 1996.

The drug, which looks like water, is usually carried in a clear vial. Users often refer to using it as "getting wet," police say.

Crannell said the treated cigarettes sell for $15 to $20 apiece and can be distinguished from other cigarettes because they have a yellow tint as a result of the dipping.