Bath Salts Gone Bad

In Florida there has been legal drug selling in convenience stores and gas stations. The drugs are in little packages that are labeled "Bath Salts." This drug cartel has been going on for quite a while; but local police officers are just now discovering it. This drug produces a meth-like high and terribly violent behavior in users. The poison control center states, "The drug is usually snorted or smoked — not unlike cocaine or methamphetamine, but we have seen it used in different ways." When people are on this drug they are uncontrollable. They go through violent rampages, and some people couldn't be sedated. Ryan, a poison control officer, has seen people up close and personal on this drug and he describes their highs as "A psychotic break. They're extremely anxious and combative, they think there's stuff trying to get them, they're paranoid, they're having hallucinations." The drug is now outlawed in Florida, Louisiana, California, and several other states. "The active ingredient in the bath salts is a chemical called MDPV, which Ryan says is similar to cathinone, a compound found in a plant called khat that produces leaves that are chewed in Africa. "It's a stimulant, much like the coca leaves found in Colombia and South America," Ryan says. But "these substances that we're dealing with aren't organic," he says. "They are designer drugs, synthetic drugs, made-in-the-lab drugs."