Bath Salts

I was listening to a report on the radio about current drug addiction trends.I was shocked to find that bath salts made the top ten. I was perplexed. Aren’t bath salts used to relax yourself in the tub, smell the aromas under candlelight and make you feel good for a brief period of time? I want to know who woke up one morning and decided: I am going to smoke bath salts to get high? The concept is similar to sniffing glue or paint.

What Are Bath Salts?

There are two types of bath salts. First are the water-soluble beads commonly sold at bath and Body shops that are meant to be added to your bath water for a better cleaning and bathing experience. These are safe and harmless and just make you feel fresher. The other type of bath salt is a slang term for a new group of designer drugs containing cathinones (stimulant similar to ephedrine) which have similar effects to cocaine, ecstasy and amphetamines.

These are typically sold as tablets, capsules, or powders and purchased legally in places such as tobacco and convenience stores, gas stations and the Internet. Basically anywhere you can buy milk or cigarettes.  These “bath salts” are chemically synthesized in underground labs and try to skirt law enforcement. One trick they use is by stamping or advising “not for human consumption”. Like that is going to stop anyone from abusing bath salts.  These bath salts can be swallowed, snorted smoked or injected into the body.

Bath Salts Side Effects

Since bath salts are relatively new onto the drug addiction scene (last 10 years),  their side effects are not fully understood but one can imagine based on what cocaine does to the body. So far users have reported symptoms ranging from headaches, heart palpitations, nausea, hallucinations, paranoia and panic attacks. In addition to theses, you have violent behavior episodes (look on Youtube), heart attacks, liver failure, kidney failure and increased desire for suicide. Makes you want to go out and try them.

Legal Enforcement

Trying to get law enforcement to crack down on bath salts is hard. First, there is no list of ingredients on the package so you can’t prove their legality. The packaging comes in names such as Ivory Wave, Purple Wave, Vanilla Sky, and Bliss. Some even contain synthesized marijuana but in order to prove it, you have to get it tested in a lab which could take months. Then you can add the problem, that the components of bath salts aren’t detected in urine or blood samples by basic testing. You have to use more sophisticated equipment (GC-MS) which can run into the millions of dollars. Police departments aren’t set up for that kind of spending. If you finally get through all those steps, then the underground labs change the formula and you are back at step one.

So the next time you go to that corner convenience store, that cute packaging labelled bath salts, beware that it is not for your bath. Have you seen any bath salts listed above?