Woman pleads guilty in DMT lab bust
A 21-year-old woman has pleaded guilty after being involved in a Dimethyltryptamine, also known as DMT, lab bust.
Maura McFadian, 21, of Elyria, pleaded guilty last week to illegal manufacture/cultivation of drugs, illegal assembly or possession of chemicals for manufacture of drugs, endangering children and possession of drugs.
Court officials have not set a sentencing date pending a pre-sentence report.
Police arrested McFadian and two other Elyria residents March 22 after discovering what may have been the first active DMT lab ever busted in Ohio.
The lab was being run in a utility room of an apartment at 228 Washington Ave. McFadian’s 7-month-old child was at the apartment.
Dimethyltryptamine is a hallucinogen. Officers seized 50 grams of solid DMT and 60 milliliters of liquid, which has a street value of $6,800 for the solids alone, Lorain County Sheriff’s Office Narcotics detective Olen Martin has said.
McFadian’s co-defendants, Anderson Rush and Benjamin Harvitt, still have cases pending in Lorain County Common Pleas Court.
DMT is highly explosive and toxic to produce. The dust created by the extraction process is combustible and even a heat level that is slightly too high can cause an explosion.
Additionally, improper ventilation of the gasses can cause damage to those breathing the gasses, Martin said.
Working on a separate case, Martin had gone to the Washington Avenue residence and noticed tubes in a utility room. On the floor, Martin saw clear tubing, a crock pot, rubber gloves and chemical splash.
Martin said DMT is a psychedelic drug that varies in its results depending upon the amounts used. It can be smoked or snorted, but users will often times prefer to dose marijuana with it. Smaller doses will give people a feeling as if they are dreaming while still awake. Larger doses will cause the user to completely disconnect from reality.
DMT in its finished form is a crystalline powder that is white or yellow. It is made from the bark of the mimosa tenuiflora tree. The bark gets boiled down and combined with various chemicals to make DMT, Martin said.