Officials fear bath salts are growing drug problem

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Officials fear bath salts are growing drug problem

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When Neil Brown got high on bath salts, he took his skinning knife and slit his face and stomach repeatedly.

FULTON, Miss. (AP) - When Neil Brown got high on bath salts, hetook his skinning knife and slit his face and stomach repeatedly.Brown survived, but authorities say others haven't been so luckyafter snorting, injecting or smoking powders with suchinnocuous-sounding names as Ivory Snow, Red Dove and Vanilla Sky.Some say the effects of the powders are as powerful as abusingmethamphetamine. Increasingly, law enforcement agents and poisoncontrol centers say the bath salts with complex chemical names arean emerging menace in several U.S. states where authorities talk ofbanning their sale.From the Deep South to California, emergency calls are beingreported over exposure to the stimulants the powders often contain:mephedrone and methylenedioxypyrovalerone, also known as MDPV.Sold under such names as Ivory Wave, Bliss, White Lightning andHurricane Charlie, the chemicals can cause hallucinations,paranoia, rapid heart rates and suicidal thoughts, authorities say.The chemicals are in bath salts and even plant foods that are soldlegally at convenience stores and on the Internet. However, theyaren't necessarily being used for the purposes on the label.Mississippi lawmakers this week began considering a proposal toban the sale of the powders, and a similar step is being sought inKentucky. In Louisiana, the bath salts were outlawed by anemergency order after the state's poison center received more than125 calls in the last three months of 2010 involving exposure tothe chemicals.In Brown's case, he said he had tried every drug from heroin tocrack and was so shaken by terrifying hallucinations that he wroteone Mississippi paper urging people to stay away from the bathsalts."I couldn't tell you why I did it," Brown said, pointing tohis scars. "The psychological effects are still there."While Brown survived, sheriff's authorities in one Mississippicounty say they believe one woman overdosed on bath salts there. Insouthern Louisiana, the family of a 21-year-old man says he cut histhroat and ended his life with a gunshot. Authorities areinvestigating whether a man charged with capital murder in theDecember death of a Tippah County, Miss., sheriff's deputy wasunder the influence of the bath salts.The stimulants aren't regulated by the U.S. Drug EnforcementAdministration, but are facing federal scrutiny. Law officers saysome of the substances are being shipped from Europe, but originsare still unclear. Boggs, an executive assistant at the DEA, said there's alengthy process to restrict these types of designer chemicals,including reviewing the abuse data. But it's a process that cantake years.Dr. Mark , director of Louisiana's poison control center,said he thinks state bans on the chemicals can be effective. Hesaid calls about the salts have dropped sharply since Louisianabanned their sale in January. said cathinone, the parent substance of the drugs, comesfrom a plant grown in Africa and is regulated. He said MDPV andmephedrone are made in a lab, and they aren't regulated becausethey're not marketed for human consumption. The stimulants affectneurotransmitters in the brain, he said."It causes intense cravings for it. They'll binge on it threeor four days before they show up in an ER. Even though it's ahorrible trip, they want to do it again and again," said. said at least 25 states have received calls about exposure,including Nevada and California. He said Louisiana leads with thegreatest number of cases at 165, or 48 percent of the U.S. total,followed by Florida with at least 38 calls to its poison center.Dr. Rick Gellar, medical director for the California PoisonControl System, said the first call about the substances came inOct. 5, and a handful of calls have followed since. But he warned:"The only way this won't become a problem in California is iffederal regulatory agencies get ahead of the curve. This is a brandnew thing."In the Midwest, the Missouri Poison Center at Cardinal GlennonChildren's Medical Center received at least 12 calls in the firsttwo weeks of January about teenagers and young adults abusing suchchemicals, said Weber, the center's director. The centerreceived eight calls about the powders all of last year.Dr. , a general practitioner working inCovington, La., said his son, Dickie, snorted some of the bathsalts and endured three days of intermittent delirium. Dickie missed major arteries when he cut his throat. As hecontinued to have visions, his physician father tried to calm him.But the elder said that as he slept, his son went intoanother room and shot himself."If you could see the contortions on his face. It just made himcrazy," said . He added that the coroner's office confirmedthe chemicals were detected in his son's blood and urine. warns the bath salts are far more dangerous than some oftheir names imply."I think everybody is taking this extremely lightly. As much aswe outlawed it in Louisiana, all these kids cross over toMississippi and buy whatever they want," he said.A small packet of the chemicals typically costs as little as$20.In northern Mississippi's Itawamba County, Sheriff ChrisDickinson said his office has handled about 30 encounters with bathsalt users in the past two months alone. He said the problem grewlast year in his rural area after a Mississippi law beganrestricting the sale of pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in makingmethamphetamine.Dickinson said most of the bath salt users there have been methaddicts and can be dangerous when using them."We had a deputy injured a week ago. They were fighting with aguy who thought they were two devils. That's what makes this drugso dangerous," he said.But Dickinson said the chemicals are legal for now, leaving himno choice but to slap users with a charge of disorderly conduct, amisdemeanor.Kentucky state lawmaker Tilley said he's moving to blockthe drug's sale there, preparing a bill for consideration when hislegislature convenes shortly. Angry that the powders can be boughtlegally, he said: "If my 12-year-old can go in a store and buy it,that concerns me."