Chemicals Used in 'Bath Salts' Are Causing Growing Drug Problem

People are getting high by snorting, injecting or smoking powders containing dangerous chemicals sold as bath salts. When Neil Brown got high from using these powders, he took his skinning knife and slit his face and stomach repeatedly. Brown survived, but others haven't been so lucky.

Some users claim effects of the powders are as powerful as abusing methamphetamine. The powders often contain the stimulants: mephedrone and methylenedioxypyrovalerone, also known as MDPV.
Sold under such names as Ivory Wave, Bliss, White Lightning and Hurricane Charlie, the chemicals can cause hallucinations, paranoia, rapid heart rates and suicidal thoughts. The chemicals are in products sold legally at stores and on the Internet as bath salts and even plant foods. In Louisiana, the bath salts were outlawed by after the state's poison center received more than 125 calls in the last three months of 2010 involving exposure to the chemicals.

Neil Brown said he had tried every drug from heroin to crack and was shaken by terrifying hallucinations he experienced after using a bath salt powder.
"I couldn't tell you why I did it," Brown said, pointing to his scars. "The psychological effects are still there." He wrote to one Mississippi paper urging people to stay away from the advertised bath salts.

While Brown was lucky enough to survive, sheriff's authorities in Mississippi have reason to believe one woman overdosed on the powders there. In southern Louisiana, the family of a 21-year-old man says he cut his throat and ended his life with a gunshot.

The stimulants involved aren't regulated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, but are facing federal scrutiny. Gary Boggs, an executive assistant at the DEA, said there's a lengthy process to restrict these types of designer chemicals, including reviewing the abuse data. It's a process that can take years.

Ryan said cathinone, the parent substance of the drugs, comes from a plant grown in Africa and is regulated. He said MDPV and mephedrone are made in a lab, and they aren't regulated because they're not marketed for human consumption. The stimulants affect neurotransmitters in the brain, he said.
"It causes intense cravings for it. Users binge on it three or four days before they show up in an ER. Even though it's a horrible trip, they want to do it again and again," Ryan said.

Dr. Richard Sanders, a general practitioner working in Covington, La., said his son, Dickie, snorted some of the chemicals and endured three days of intermittent delirium. Dickie Sanders missed major arteries when he cut his throat. As he continued to have visions, his physician father tried to calm him. But the elder Sanders said that as he slept, his son went into another room and shot himself.

"If you could see the contortions on his face. It just made him crazy," said Sanders. He added that the coroner's office confirmed the chemicals were detected in his son's blood and urine.

A small packet of the chemicals typically costs as little as $20.

Kentucky state lawmaker John Tilley said he's moving to block the drug's sale there, preparing a bill for consideration when his legislature convenes shortly. Angry that the powders can be bought legally, he said: "If my 12-year-old can go in a store and buy it, that concerns me." http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/22/officials-fear-bath-salts-are-growing-drug-problem/?icid=main%7Chtmlws-main-n%7Cdl1%7Csec3_lnk3%7C196851