What NC lawmakers are doing after reports of people getting high on embalming fluid

CHARLOTTE — People are using embalming fluid to get high, which could lead to dangerous and deadly situations.

North Carolina lawmakers are pushing to regulate its use, and local funeral homes are already planning for possible changes.

Lawmakers say too many people have been dipping cigarettes and joints into the embalming fluid.

Authorities say it’s causing people to violently hallucinate.

Alexander Funeral Home in Charlotte uses the fluid to preserve and slow the decomposition of bodies.

“We keep it locked up except when it’s being utilized,” said owner and state Rep. Kelly Alexander, D-Mecklenburg. “As people are finding more and more substances that they want to play Russian roulette with, it has to be something that an operator thinks of.”

Alexander voted in favor of the Rakim Shackleford Act, which would regulate and label embalming fluid as a controlled substance.

In January 2022, Shackleford ingested the fluid then violently hallucinated and attacked his mother, Katina Shackleford-Wright, who was forced to shoot him in self-defense.

The law would make something that is currently a poison-control issue a criminal issue.

Alexander said the law is past due.

Someone asked him five years ago to sell them a case of embalming fluid for $5,000.

He didn’t sell them the fluid.

“Anyone doing this is playing Russian roulette with their sanity,” Alexander said.

The bill to regulate the sale and possession of embalming fluid has passed the House of Representatives.

The bill, which has a lot of support, must still clear the Senate.

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