AHS Views

I hope you’ve heard about the designer drug called bath salts. A recent news article featured a doctor who’s the head of the emergency department of a New York hospital. He has recently seen several patients with hallucinogenic highs that last for days. According to the doc, the patients are so far out there they don’t even realize they’re on planet earth. Some are also violent enough to need to be put in restraints. If you suspect anyone you know is using bath salts, or taking other drugs – which means there’s a better chance they’ll also take bath salts if given the chance – you should get them some addiction help immediately.

If you think there’s a possibility your son or daughter may be involved in drugs and want to find out if there are bath salts in the house, you should know that they look like any other bottle of bath salts. Of course, they’re not sold in your local pharmacy or grocery store; they’re sold in headshops – stores that generally sell drug paraphernalia – or online.

Another drug that’s creating a big problem is synthetic marijuana.

Taking either of these drugs causes hallucinations, paranoia, rapid heart beat, high blood pressure, violence, kidney failure, and even death – according

Poison control centers says the calls they’re getting from people in trouble with these drugs are skyrocketing.

Parents need to listen to the news, check online, and generally learn as much as possible about these drugs so they can educate their children and, if their children do get involved in them, know what’s going on so they can get into drug rehab as soon as possible.

I recently read a news item about a ‘head shop’ in Duluth, Minnesota. Head shops carry drug paraphernalia – incense, pipes, certain music, posters, and so on. The head shop in this story – called ‘Last Place on Earth’ – also carries ‘drugs’. In fact, they are not yet classified as drugs; the substances are dangerous chemicals that mimic the effects of methamphetamine, cocaine, LSD, etc. They are being called ‘designer drugs.’ Unfortunately, they are not yet illegal – although they will be very soon. The people who make them, sell them, and simply possess them will then be breaking the law. And it’s a good thing. These chemicals are causing very serious physical and mental conditions, and the people using them are in serious need of addiction help.

The news item about the head shop began: “On many mornings, it looks like it’s the hottest business in downtown Duluth. Dozens of customers line up in front of the Last Place on Earth head shop on Superior Street to buy designer drugs, including herbal incense — sold as a legal alternative to marijuana — with names such as No Name, Armageddon and DOA, and bath salts called Insurrection and Lunar Eclipse. Some of the fidgety customers look like they’re waiting to get into a soup kitchen. Others look like your next-door neighbor. The products they are seeking to buy are comprised of a class of chemicals perceived as legally mimicking cocaine, LSD and methamphetamine.”

Reports regarding the dangerous effects of these chemicals are mounting. The number of reports to the Poison Control Center went from 0 in 2009, to 302 in 2010, and to 2,237 in just the first six months 2011.

There have been 20 calls in the last month in the Duluth area alone. A police sergeant describes his experience with people using these chemicals/drugs: “My personal experience is that it looks like a really bad trip on meth to me. People hallucinate and have very erratic behavior. Paranoia. Very uncontrolled. They sometimes have violence toward themselves and toward others. Just very, very odd.”

A doctor at just one local hospital says he sees two to ten people a week coming into the ER for problems with these ‘designer drugs’. “People snort it, or mostly inject it, it seems, in the arm, or whatever vein they can access depending on whatever their drug history is. The last one I saw was somebody who had been using it and brought in by police. They had two (officers) to restrain him. He had high blood pressure, high pulse, screaming, really struggling with police that required him to be sedated and admitted to the hospital.”

He also said that the drugs can cause seizures, kidney failure and death, and that there have been many reports about people “being so psychotic and hallucinating that they cut themselves with knives.”

The owner of the store, whose name is Jim Carlson, said he expects to make $6 million this year off these chemicals. He makes no apologies; he told reporters that people have a right to do whatever they want for their ‘enjoyment.’

Right. Here I was thinking that going psychotic, cutting yourself and having seizures and kidney failure was a bad thing!

Mr. Carlson doesn’t use the chemicals himself, says he doesn’t like them. In fact, it appears he doesn’t use any drugs, just has one or two drinks a week.

The DEA is working on making these substances illegal; a temporary measure should be in place by mid-October and will last 12 to 18 months. The permanent law should be passed by then. The chemicals will be classified as “Schedule 1 substances, the most restrictive category, which is reserved for unsafe, highly abused substances with no currently accepted medical use in the U.S.”

Fortunately, we only have to wait until mid-October before people making or selling these chemicals can be prosecuted. As with other drugs, they would also be able to be prosecuted for any harm that comes to someone they sell them to.

One parent, whose son was using these chemicals, said she ‘can’t do anything about it because they’re not illegal.’ Yes, there is something you can do – kids don’t have to be using illegal chemicals to go to a drug rehab program. Making substances illegal illegal won’t help that end of things – the people using them will just find other drugs or chemicals if they can’t get these anymore. What they need is drug rehab.

But when the law does come into affect, I do hope that parents and other family members and friends of the people who have been harmed by these chemicals will take full advantage of their ability to prosecute the manufacturers and pushers.

In case you’ve been wondering about the new drug called ‘bath salts’, here’s some additional information. By the way, if you have kids or friends who use drugs, you have to warn them about bath salts. A guy who’s been using the drug since December just murdered his girlfriend. Bath salts can cause very strange, erratic and dangerous behavior – get anyone you know who you think might take it, or has, into an addiction help program asap.

Bath salts is a drug that resembles bath salts, rock crystals, hence, its name. The real name of the chemical is Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV). It’s a stimulant drug – like speed, methamphetamine, cocaine, and so on – and has an erratic and intense effect.

MDPV has been used in Europe for several years and is banned in the United Kingdom.

The American Association of Poison Control Centers has recorded 1,403 overdoses in the U.S. since late 2010 – just a few months. That’s definitely above the norm.

A single dose of MDPV ranges from 50 mg to 100 mg. You can buy a 500 mg pack in little convenience stores for about $30. A very cheap high that practically anyone can afford.

A single dose can keep a user awake for up to 36 hours and, in addition to the usual euphoria that goes along with most drugs, has side effects that include hypertension, insomnia, nausea and dizziness.

Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood), who introduced legislation to ban the drug, said “It has a Russian roulette range. Someone may get a raging heart while someone else has psychotic events.” She also said MDPV is associated with self-mutilation and participating in assault.

Steven Marcus, medical director of the New Jersey Poison Control Center, said “We have people run down the street screaming.”

Other Assemblymen and Senators have also proposed bills, or are about to, to get this drug banned quickly.

MDPV is a real nightmare. When you consider that anyone can get this drug just about anywhere – sometimes even labeled and disguised as real bath salts, the ban can’t be soon enough.

If someone you know takes drugs, warn them about bath salts/Methylenedioxypyrovalerone/MDPV. Better still, get them into drug rehab. One of the unfortunate facts about people on drugs is that they can’t make the right decisions – so they might take bath salts despite warnings. Just get them some help.