Bath salts still remain a menace in the drug and chemical dependency counseling community. By the time bans were put out by the states it was already too late for bath salts to claim their toll on many people, according to addiction physiology.
"Toll of ‘bath salts’ lingers after state ban; K2 law skirted
Fort Wayne – Her longtime boyfriend used the drug all day, the woman told police, and it made him extremely paranoid.
He began talking “weird” as the two sat in the living room the night of July 18. Soon, he started choking her. He held a knife to her face. He asked whether she wanted to be stabbed.
Then he punched her, according to Allen Superior Court documents.
The drug commonly called “bath salts” is central to the accusations against 33-year-old Scott Mahathy of Fort Wayne. He’s charged with felony counts of strangulation, criminal confinement and criminal recklessness.
While no drug charges were filed, the case highlights yet another recreational stimulant that could occupy law enforcement and medical professionals in the months to come:
Despite a July 1 statewide ban on the possession, manufacture and sale of bath salts, cases involving the drug are still popping up. And those who have stopped using the product, even months later, may still suffer its effects, described by one local doctor as worse than methamphetamine’s.
‘Huge problem’
Until 18 months ago, the drug wasn’t an issue. Then, things exploded, said Dr. Tom Gutwein, Parkview Health’s emergency department medical director.
People began buying a new stimulant from specialty shops, gas stations and convenience stores. The containers had names like Aura, Ivory Wave and Vanilla Sky.
The crystals or powders inside were laced with a hallucinogenic chemical called methylenedioxypyrovalerone, or MDPV. It is not the same product to mimic mineral spirits or provide a pleasing aroma while bathing.
Some users of the new designer drug ended up in Parkview Health emergency rooms, Gutwein said.
These patients were extremely agitated with elevated blood pressures and heart rates. Some of their symptoms were similar to those experienced by people who have taken Ecstasy or cocaine. Some who suffered hallucinations or psychotic episodes had to be housed in the psychiatric unit.
“I think the side effects from bath salts are worse than methamphetamine’s,” Gutwein said. “It’s a huge problem.”
Legislators this year passed a law banning both bath salts and K2, or Spice, a synthetic version of marijuana. While 34 states have passed some form of ban, the product could be illegal across the country soon. A bill to outlaw bath salts nationwide unanimously passed a key U.S. Senate committee Thursday.
In the year-and-a-half leading up to the ban, Gutwein said he saw about three or four cases of bath salt abuse a week. Since the ban, he said he has not seen a case come through the emergency room doors, but that doesn’t ease his concern.
“Even after people stop using it, you can see long-term effects,” Gutwein said. “Just from some of what I’ve looked at, there can be problems six months later. It’s not something that just goes away.”
In one case, a patient came to a Parkview hospital in late June suffering from the effects of bath salts, Gutwein said. The patient, though, had not used the drug for several days.
Across the country, stories abound of people committing violent and dangerous acts while high on bath salts.
In May, a Celina, Ohio, man allegedly shot his wife in the hand after the pair used the synthetic drug. An Indianapolis man purportedly using bath salts hung from a roadside flagpole in June before jumping into traffic, where a vehicle struck him.
According to various news reports, a woman in West Virginia scratched herself “to pieces” after using the product, while a woman in Missouri became psychotic toward her fiancé and then died after smoking bath salts.
Skirting the ban
At least 28 states have banned bath salts.
In discussions with police, Gutwein said he has already heard rumblings that the companies that make the synthetic drug were prepared for such bans and are planning ways to get around the laws.
It’s something that requires police vigilance.
“You know it’s always a possibility,” said Lt. Mike Vaughn, head of the Allen County sheriff’s vice and narcotics division.
When it comes to K2 or Spice, some people are getting around the law by buying the plant used to make the synthetic marijuana separately from the chemical, Vaughn said. It’s not illegal to own the plant and many procure the chemical through the Internet to combine the two later, according to Vaughn.
Recently, Vaughn received a tip from a shipping company about a tractor-trailer rig filled with 4 tons of plants typically used to make K2. With no presence of the chemical that goes into the product on the vehicle, though, there was no crime committed.
“The same thing could be happening with bath salts,” he said. “They get the chemical and whatever else they need separately.”
Vaughn said that since the ban on K2 and bath salts went into effect, his department has received numerous tips about businesses that still sell the product. Most of this is done in secret, though: You have to know someone at the shop to buy the products.
When police officers show up at the businesses, the product is not in sight, Vaughn said.
And already there are complications with enforcing the current law, which places possession of bath salts and K2 near the same level as possessing marijuana, Vaughn said.
If an officer finds someone in possession of something that appears to be K2 or bath salts, there’s no definitive test immediately available to prove it’s either of the synthetic drugs. Someone could be carrying around a baggie of plants or even a new product not touched by the law.
“We’re kind of handcuffed as far as enforcement is concerned,” Vaughn said.
Because of that, stories such as the one involving Scott Mahathy might not go away immediately. The same goes for more gruesome ones, such as what happened in Washington state in April, when police discovered the bodies of a couple and their small child in an Olympia home.
The man apparently killed the woman before killing himself, according to media reports. One of them, police aren’t sure which one, used a plastic bag to suffocate the child.
According to reports published last month, a coroner discovered traces of MDPV in the bodies of the couple."
Source: http://www.jg.net/article/20110731/LOCAL07/307319943/1002/LOCAL
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