I-dosing: Youths try tuning in to get high

OKLAHOMA CITY — Teens are experimenting with what they say is a new way to get high: listening to online music and tones that they say can cause a drug-like state of euphoria.

The youths plug into what they call “i-dosers” by putting on headphones and downloading music and tones that create a supposed drug-like euphoria, according to some school officials. The technology is designed to combine a tone in each ear to create a binaural beat designed to alter brainwaves.

In March, three students at Mustang High School in Mustang, Okla., were sent to the principal's office when they appeared to be high on drugs or alcohol, said Mustang School District Superintendent Bonnie Lightfoot. She said the kids explained that they had tried something called “i-dosers.”

Whether it was youngsters faking it, the power of suggestion, or a real high wasn't clear to administrators who investigated the students' claims.

Adding to the mystery was the fact that these youths weren't troublemakers, Ms. Lightfoot said. So she sent parents a letter warning them to be aware of this new temptation.

“The parents' reaction was the same as mine. Just shocked,” Ms. Lightfoot said. “You've got to be kidding.”

Now other schools and drug experts are concerned about this trend.

“I think it's very dangerous,” said Karina Forrest-Perkins, chief operating officer of Gateway to Prevention and Recovery in Shawnee, Okla. While there are no known neurological effects from such digital drugs, they encourage youths to pursue mood-altering substances, she said.

For now, i-dosing doesn't appear to have gained much of a foothold in northwest Ohio.

Of 21 college students and 15 high school students approached Thursday on the University of Toledo and Bowling Green State University campuses, only one UT student said she had heard of i-dosing, but she had never tried it. The students largely agreed they would not be interested in trying i-dosing, citing finances and unfamiliarity as their chief concerns.

Alexis Blavos, an alcohol and drug abuse prevention specialist at the UT, said combating digital drug use was not high on the school's priority list. Rather, UT focuses on preventing excessive drinking and irresponsible use of prescription drugs, such as adderall.

“[I-dosing] is not highly publicized in this area,” Ms. Blavos said, adding that students who can easily go to a local house party for a beer are not going to pay money for what she said is just “obnoxious noise.”

“I-dosing” works by playing a static-like white noise in one ear, and playing beats and tones in the other. The combination supposedly realigns brainwaves, but Ms. Blavos said published, peer-reviewed studies on its potency are nonexistent.

“There's no research anywhere,” she said. “‘I-dosing' has been going on for four years; in the next year or so we might see something show up in the literature. We'll have to wait and see what happens.”

But she added that even if the digital drug is neurologically safe, users who feel high or drunk could still harm themselves if they try to, say, drive a car. Furthermore, tampering with brainwave patterns could induce seizures; students who are susceptible to seizures, but have never had one before, might not realize that “i-dosing” is a danger.

Mark Woodward, spokesman for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control, said the i-dosing effect is likely sort of a placebo rather than a valid threat to a youngster's brain waves.

“The bigger concern is if you have a kid wanting to explore this, you probably have a kid that may end up smoking marijuana or looking for bigger things,” Mr. Woodward said.

A digital drug Web site features advertisements enticing young people to buy dangerous pills, the hallucinatory herb salvia, and synthetic marijuana.

“It's going to lead them to other Web sites that will get them in trouble,” Mr. Woodward said.

When young people go to one Web site to download digital drugs, they'll find a product line featuring titles such as “alcohol,” “opium,” “marijuana,” and “orgasm.” The Web site shows the digital drugs have been downloaded more than 1 million times.

To sell more, the Web sites encourage users to write about their experiences on the site.

One user said animals popped up and paint seemed to fall from the wall. Another user wrote, “I feel nothing. I'm starting to wonder if this is just a big ploy to get money from gullible customers.” Still others said they experienced euphoria or sensations similar to getting high on crack and other drugs.

A site says that the i-doses may not be downloaded by anyone under 18 years of age.

“Come on. You know they are,” Ms. Forrest-Perkins said.

Mr. Woodward and Ms. Forrest-Perkins pointed out that no studies have concluded that binaural beats actually chemically alter the brain.

A 2005 University of South Florida study looked at whether children and young adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder could better focus by listening to binaural beats. But the results were inconclusive. The University of Virginia recently received a $357,000 grant to look at pain and anxiety therapies, primarily binaural beat stimulation.

Florida mental health counselor Jed Shlackman said he has successfully used CDs featuring binaural beats to help treat ADHD patients. He said binaural beats are relatively safe and no more dangerous than activities such as shopping or exercising done in excess by young people.

He said the binaural beats lack the intensity or withdrawal effects of some chemical drugs.

Ms. Lightfoot said that, like Mustang High School parents, she's shocked over the digital drugs. “What worries me is the ease in which some people can sell things to kids by saying that it's supposed to be mood altering,” she said. “It's a real moneymaker out there.”

This report includes information from the (Oklahoma City) Oklahoman and Blade staff writer Greta Stetson.