SIDNEY — The word LSD is triggering red flags in the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office.

“We’ve investigated a couple of cases where teens are buying drugs on the Internet or Dark Web,” said Shelby County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Jim Frye, who is standing in for Sheriff John Lenhart’s weekly interview.

Within the past several months, the Sheriff’s Office has been involved in two investigations involving the shipment of large quantities of drugs through the postal system.

“We received word of 5 kilos of marijuana coming into Shelby County by mail. We were able to bust them and charge the person with trafficking of drugs,” said Frye.

“A couple of days later, we received word from Homeland Security in San Francisco that they had intercepted a delivery of Tramadol, which was scheduled to be delivered to Shelby County.”

With the assistance of customs officer with the postal service, the delivery was made and the person was charged with possession of a controlled substance. The delivery included 2,500 pills of Tramadol.

The red flags go even further, said Frye, when they discovered juveniles are purchasing LSD on the Internet.

“It’s concerning to me that juveniles are using acid and that they can buy it on the Internet,” said Frye. “You can buy anything on the Dark Web.

“If you want a stolen car, you can pick out the color and model of the car, pay for it with bitcoins and then the car will be delivered to you. You can buy guns with silencers and 2 grams of cocaine on the Dark Web,” he said.

Frye said in the 2018 Global Drug Survey, 18 percent of Americans have purchased drugs online.

“I’ve been in public service for 38 years,” said Frye, “and I’ve only seen acid twice. It’s not something that is common. But the fact that juveniles are using acid terrifies me.”

Frye said parents must be educated for the signs of drug abuse and if their child is purchasing drugs online.

“We’ve educated parents about pedophiles being online, now we need to educate them about drug purchases online.,” said Frye.

Frye said some signs that parents should be looking for include:

• Changes of normal habits of the teen.

• Browser history on the Internet.

• New cravings for food or an increased appetite.

• A lack of appetite.

• Changes in their group of friends.

• Complaints from teachers about the child’s behavior in class.

• Grades fall.

• Changes in physical appearance such as bloodshot eyes, bruises, needle marks on arms or flushed cheeks.

• Wears long-sleeved shirts instead of short-sleeved shirts in hot weather.

• Careless personal hygiene.

• Unusual smell on clothing or breath. Takes a shower as soon as they get home to wash away the smell or eats breath mints to mask the odor.

• Nose bleeds when they don’t have a cold.

• Constantly licks their lips.

• Secretive behavior or sneaking out of the house.

• Locks the bedroom door.

• An outgoing child becomes withdrawn.

• Avoiding eye contact.

• Steals money or items from the home.

• Misses classes, work or extra-curricular activities.

“Parents also need to know the drug lingo,” said Frye. “We’ve seen text messages between kids with lingo so the parents wouldn’t know what they were talking about.”

Frye said the DEA has a resource that can be downloaded that talks about drugs from A to Z. The link is https://bit.ly/2KPO83K.

“I don’t know why LSD is so attractive to kids,” said Frye. “It scares the crap out of me that kids are doing LSD.”

Vaping is also causing concerns as people are mixing drugs into what they are smoking.

Frye said he read a story where college officials said they would rather their students buy drugs on the Internet than from the neighborhood drug dealer as they don’t know what they are purchasing from the drug dealer.

“You don’t know what you getting either place — online or from a drug dealer,” said Frye.