All about "smiles", the drug that may have killed SoA actor Johnny Lewis

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All about “smiles”, the drug that may have killed SoA actor Johnny Lewis

When Sons of Anarchy actor Johnny Lewis died a couple days ago, it appears that he may have been on smiles, a synthetic drug from the 1990s that’s been making a comeback. It’s called “smiles” because it makes you giddy and happy and is a mild hallucinogen. So it’s kinda sorta like weed… and what’s wrong with weed? You know how many people have died from weed overdose… ever? Zero.

Smiles was created in 1991 by Alexander Shulgin, the made who made ecstasy famous. It’s also called 2C-I, and comes as a tablet or powder, or sometimes mixed in with candy.

Last March, one person died and 10 were hospitalized after Smiles was spread around a Spring Break party in Minnesota. In June, two North Dakota teenagers died from a Smiles overdose. (One month later, the Drug Enforcement Administration classified Smiles as illegal to make, buy, sell or possess.) On Monday, a 7-year-old and 10-year-old in Pennsylvania got sick at school after taking Smiles.

Here’s one guy describing it as a life-changing experience: