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Justin Hughes
Life, Society and Drugs
Professor Gustavo Ibarra
Tuesday and Thursday at 5:30
July 22, 2014
Bath Salts Not for Human Consumption
The Author Russ Taylor wrote a book that is for all ages and people of all different
backgrounds. The way he shared this epidemic of Bath Salts and the wide spread use
of it and how readily available it is being sold over the counters at head shops and gas
stations. Taylor mentions, that store keepers are just selling this product(20), some
aren't aware of the damage it is doing to the user and some are fully aware but they are
making a 400% prot no the Bath Salts.
Taylor says, The Bath Salts today are not the Bath Salts of olden times when it
was being used for actual baths(4). Bath Salt is the name for a designer drug similar to
MDMA or more widely known as ecstasy. The Bath Salts are made with three chemicals
Methylenedioxypyrovalerone or simply MDPV, Mephodrone and Methylone. Taylor
reports, The DEA put a ban these chemicals on October 7th, 2010 and one day later
chemists had altered the structure just enough(11), to produce legal Chemicals that
could be used to meet the consumers demands. Dr Michael Baumann of NIDAs
Intramural Research Program has teamed up with researchers to determine how Bath
Salts effect the brain. Two of the chemicals used to make bath salts are Mephedrone
and Methylone. Through testing on rats it has been determined, that direct
measurements of neurochemical release in the nucleus acumen increases the extra-
cellular dopamine and serotonin levels(Baumann). Similar to MDMA in its chemical
structure yet Bath Salts have a greater effect on serotonin and dopamine. Baumann
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and his Research team have shown that Mephedrone and Methylone may be addictive
to rats.
Taylor relates the MDPV to Cocaine and how that a person using cocaine must
take a dose of 1.5 grams to be fatal. The drug user taking MDPV which is Bath Salt has
to only use a 50 mg dose to be fatal. The user will feel the urge to use more as soon as
the high starts to fade, this is called re-dose. This is why it is so common for the addict
to overdose on bath salt products. There is no actual information on what a safe dose
might be do the fact that all the different chemicals that are being used in the different
bath salts. No one can know how big the risk is using these drugs. Bath Salts are
terribly potent.
Russs Taylor states, The suppliers are using a loop whole in which the law
ofcials are unable to just go and pull it off the shelves(7). The Labels on the Bath Salt
says not for human consumption. So it is still being sold in our surrounding area. He
goes on to discuss how we can be active in our own neighborhoods in determining
where the Bath Salts are being sold and then informing our local police. The local stores
that are selling Bath Salts are having to avoid the local law enforcement. They are not
selling to new clients for fear of getting busted. They do sell to the faces they recognize
or try to sell to customers they believe to be ok to sell too.
Bath Salts are being linked to a high number of emergency room visits. As
Volkow states it, Doctors are saying that people that snort or ingest the the synthetic
stimulant are having chest pains, extreme paranoia, delusions, increased blood
pressure, agitation and hallucinations(Volkow).
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The users also suffer from frequent cravings and the frequent use can cause
tolerance, dependence and strong withdrawal symptoms when not able to take the
drug. Bath salts according to the Poison Control, the drug is most popular among
people ages 20 to 29(Volkow).
Russ Taylor goes on to share some experience of crimes that are committed
while on Bath Salt and they are disgusting. The Author described these as horror stories
and I would have to agree. In April 2011 a man was found dead on the freeway near
Seatle he had committed suicide but not before he had killed his wife(23). The police
found Bath Salts in his pocketbook and when the ofcers went to his home to further
investigate they found the couple Five year old son dead. He had been suffocated. The
only way to ght this Epidemic is to bring awareness to the masses.
As James Winton reports it, These Substances may have benign names like
spice and bath salts, but they have been linked to serious health complications and
even death.(Winton) A 38 year old man and a 26 year old man have been arrested and
charged for sixteen felony accounts for distribution of these synthetic substances. In
Orange County California where the three year investigation nally wrapped up and the
and the Southern California and Drug Task Force uncovered four Chinese Nationals
who were involved with smuggling these synthetic substances into the country. The drug
dealers had distributed millions of dollars worth of Bath salts and Spice.
When Robert Moor wrote this piece he dared to ask, will they cause the zombie
apocalypse? He is referring to the Synthetic drug Bath Salts where people that are
abusing them are having some very disturbing behaviors. He describes, On May 26,
2014 a man attacked another man during the day and they were both naked(Moor).
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The man that was the attacker was eating the other mans face off before the police
could intervene and shot the man dead to get him to stop. As he took bullets he
continued to tear at the mans face, one eye witness stated the man looked towards him
with a piece of esh hanging from his mouth. For the next 96 hours the news media
raised all sorts of fears with speculation that some new form of drug was going to cause
the zombie apocalypse. One month later when the toxicology report came back and it
said the man was under the inuence of Bath Salts.
Jonel Alicia reports to us of a story straight out of our worst nightmares. A 34
year old woman showed up at Hospital in Louisiana complaining of pain and redness in
her right fore arm. After talking to the woman, she confessed to using the synthetic drug
Called Bath Salt. On the forearm was a puncture wound the woman admitted was from
a needle. The lady said that the symptoms started two days after injecting bath salts at
a party. The doctors gave her antibiotics and two days later the symptoms were still
there and at a closer look the redness was growing and it was draining a smelly
substance and the skin was sloughing off her arm. Fearing for the woman's life the
doctors removed her arm. The nal diagnosis was necrotizing fasciitis caused by
streptococcus bacteria.
Although Taylor gives us the warning signs of addiction so we can be aware what
to look for if we might suspect a friend or loved one of abusing drugs. He makes a valid
and clear point that it is sometimes hard to notice this cause people that are getting
addicted to these substances are not showing signs until after long term use and by
then dependence and tolerance are getting their claws into the person with the
addiction.
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I am going to school to be a drug and alcohol counselor. It is books and news
reports like these that needs to be pushed on to the public. I agree with Russ Taylor
when he states, we need to raise the general publics awareness(16), devoting new
plans of attack on the sellers of designer drugs is in societies court. I hope you can
agree with me when I say that the Bath Salt epidemic is going to get worst before it gets
better. We can become aware of what is going on around us. Start looking for signs of
addiction and notice when are loved ones or neighbors are starting to use Bath Salts or
another designer drug and get them help they need. Call the police or contact your local
drug abuse hotline to inquire about the steps you should take for the behaviors you are
witnessing. Really before it is too late and you have to see someone eating the face off
another person.

WORKS CITED

Aleccia, JoNel. Woman loses arm to esh-eating bacteria from bath salts. NBC News.
Saturday Jan 14, 2012

Baumann, M.H., et al. The Designer Methcathinone Analogs, Mephedrone and Methylone, are
Substrates For Monoamine Transporters inBrain Tissue. Neuropsychopharmacolgy
37(5):1192-1203, 2012

Moor, Robert. Breaking Bath Salts, GQ Magazine, July 13, 2012

Taylor, Russ. Bath Salts An Inside Look At The Synthetic Drug Phenomenon. Russ Taylor. 2012

Winton, Richard. Authorities bust large bath salt drug organization. LA Times. June 13, 2013

Volkow, Nora D. Caucus on International Narcotics Control United States Senate. September
25, 2013