More than $9,000 worth of illegal drugs such as LSD and cocaine were seized last week by Rutherford County Sheriff's deputies patrolling on Interstate 24 before the Bonnaroo festival in Manchester, said Sheriff Robert Arnold.

Some of the marijuana that was seized had a slightly different taste to it...

Deputies seized 37 hits of LSD, almost an ounce of cocaine, illegal mushrooms and numerous prescription pills, said Lt. Kenneth Barrett, who supervises the K-9, Active Crime Enforcement and the Interstate Crime Enforcement divisions. Deputies in those divisions patrolled on I-24 to prevent serious traffic crashes during the high volume of traffic traveling to the festival.

Sheriff Arnold said the deputies' visibility helped prevent crashes and fatalities with the heavy traffic.

"Our deputies did an outstanding job in making safety a top priority," Sheriff Arnold said.

Lt. Barrett said deputies arrested seven suspects and issued 97 citations on drug violations. Deputies wrote 125 warning citations and four traffic citations.

The K-9s and their handlers did 40 different scans of vehicles, making several positive alerts of illegal drugs.

ICE Sgt. Shawn Applegate said most of the drugs found were for recreational use.

"We found people who had medicinal marijuana from California with different strains with banana and strawberry flavoring," Sgt. Applegate said.

ACE Deputy James McFerrin said LSD was found in paper hits, in sugar cubes to dissolve when tasted or dropped into drinks or in candy.

Lt. Barrett said the deputies found THC oil and wax. THC is the mind-altering chemical in marijuana.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse explained, "A newly popular method of use is smoking or eating different forms of THC-rich resins. Smoking THC-rich resins extracted from the marijuana plant is on the rise. Users call this practice dabbing. People are using various forms of these extracts, such as oil and wax."

McFerrin said the THC wax is put in a vaporizer and the oil is smoked in an electronic cigarette or added to food products such as lollipops and baked goods.

"The unusual trend is the amount of LSD, THC and the amount of 'Molly,' (a form of Ecstasy)," McFerrin said.

Deputy Jonathan McGee said some of the hash oil seized came from dispensaries in Colorado. Some marijuana was found in cookies.