Newark Police Department offers to test meth for gluten
NEWARK, Calif. -- A Facebook post from a police department rarely gets much attention, but take a close look at one from the Newark Police Department. It really was meant to bring some smiles and laughter to the community, but it also brought a lot of attention to a city of about 45,000 people.
It says, "Is your meth laced with deadly gluten? Not sure? Bring your meth down to the PD and we will test it for you for free!"
Lieutenant Chomnan Loth is the author of the post. "So channel surf and I happened to be watching a gluten free commercial or whatever and I thought to myself, wouldn't it be funny if drugs had gluten in it," he said.
The Facebook post went viral around the world with more than 200,000 shares, 31,000 reactions and close to 9,000 comments in just a week. But not everyone thought it was funny.
"I showed it to my wife and I said hey, what do you think about this and she thought it was lame," he said.
People in Newark weren't sure of what to make of the post. "It's interesting," resident Jody De La Rama said.
Some people in Newark were seeing the post for the first time. "This is a real post? Uh it's puzzling," resident Marla Z. said.
When resident Fremont Larhonda Hill asked if she thought anybody was going to bring in their meth to get it tested for gluten, she said, "No, they don't care about gluten."
Loth says no one has come in yet to test their meth for gluten, but the offer is still on the table. "Yeah, any time you have any illegal drugs and you want to come in, we're more than willing to take a look at it for you and test whatever you need. Our PD is always open 24 hours a day," he said.
The reaction to this Facebook post isn't slowing. The Newark Police Department has heard from people as far away as Japan, England and Australia.
