Within a year's span, some East Tennessee law enforcement agencies saw the synthetic drug problem go from a potential epidemic to nearly an afterthought.
"People really didn't know about it. They were like, 'yeah it does this to you' and 'oh man, I want to try it,'" said Stephanie Mitchell, 18. She was profiled in a 10News Town Hall in February on the dangers of this substance.
"The one I got a hold of was called 'Head Trip.' It smelled like Lemon Pledge and I didn't know any better," she added.
She described the sensation as "frightening" during the Town Hall. "It was a sudden thing. Your body goes numb and your skin feels all crawly and spinny and I started freaking out," she said in February.
At the time, some synthetic drugs were common and legal in some state tobacco shops and convenience stores. It was not until state laws were enacted that halted the the substance in its tracks.
"The laws have changed; they got a little more descriptive and gave us some guidance into how we can proceed if we found someone with possession of (the drug)," said Sevier County Sheriff's captain Michael Hodges.
He said the number of synthetic drug-related cases tumbled from a high of six to eight months ago.
"It was almost an afterthought as soon as it was a forethought," Capt. Hodges said. "I mean the state acted pretty quickly as to who we were to proceed and to see what we needed to do to handle. It just didn't materialize into the level that law enforcement officials across the state thought they would see."
Now as one problem looks like it is decreasing, another is increasing. Capt. Hodges said the calls coming into the drug department in the Sheriff's department are being replaced by another problem: prescription drug abuse.
He said 90% of the drug-related crimes, mostly property related, deal in some way with prescription abuse.
"It steadily climbed and continued to climb on a continued basis," he said.
However, high school senior Mitchell's message on the dangers of synthetic drugs stands: don't do them. She's glad people are catching on to their potential dangers.
"Now it's like 'yeah that's really bad, I won't ever do it'," she said.