Surely, you’ve heard the stories via the news or circulating on the internet. Stories of people acting violently, harming themselves or others, getting extremely ill or even dying. It’s a wave taking place across the country and has been attributed to one sole thing: bath salts.
When the designer drug craze known as bath salts began to sweep the nation, many people, including law enforcement and government officials, scratched their heads in confusion. To most people, bath salts are the scented, moisturizing crystals that you add to the tub at the end of a long day. Why would anyone snort, smoke or inject them?
The drug bath salts are very different from the common household product you get at Bed, Bath and Beyond. Most commonly sold in packets at convenience stores, smoke shops or, increasingly, on the streets, with names like “Purple Wave,” “Vanilla Sky” or “Bliss,” these bath salts were designed to get the user one thing: high. In short, because they were marketed as not for human consumption, under the guise of a common product, these drugs were perfectly legal.
However, that has since changed. As the craze – and its nasty effects – grew, many states, including Oklahoma, outlawed the sale of the drugs. And in October 2011, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency made it illegal to possess or sell bath salts, or the chemicals used to make the substances including mephedrone or methylenedioxypyrovalerone, also known as MPVD; the DEA outlawed methylene as well, another common ingredient in bath salts.
And while outlawing the dangerous drugs and their ingredients can certainly help reduce the amount of drugs on the streets, some argue that simply passing a law is not enough.
Criminals Don’t Obey Laws
Drug experts and law enforcement officials point to one key fact when it comes to laws regarding bath salts and other drugs: criminals do not follow the law. If that were the case, then all illegal drugs would have been eradicated by now.
What these mean for bath salts, then, is that while they are no longer readily available at the corner store, dealers and manufacturers will find new and more subtle ways to distribute them. Officials also fear that because the substances used to make the drugs are now illegal, manufacturers will find potentially even more dangerous substitutes – or create a new designer drug altogether.
What Can Be Done?
While criminalizing bath salts can help stem to problem somewhat, experts believe that the best method of halting the devastating spread of bath salts is through education. Several cities have embarked on campaigns to increase awareness of these drugs and the potential they have on users; public service announcements, information sessions and aggressive media campaigns have appeared in cities all over the country, all designed to inform citizens, especially parents, about the dangers of these drugs.
Parents need to talk with their children and stress how dangerous and addictive these drugs are; in addition to the paranoia and aggressive behavior that they can cause, a single use can cause harmful physical effects that could cause permanent damage to the brain or internal organs or even death.
And as with any drug, parents need to be vigilant for the signs of potential bath salt abuse, including:
- Severe paranoia, agitation, anxiety or aggression. In some cases, these symptoms last for days after a single use.
- Psychotic behavior
- Hallucinations
- Suicidal thoughts or behavior – including attempted suicide without any other signs
- Increased amounts of energy
- Changes in sleep and eating patterns; i.e., not needing to eat or sleep
- Excessive sweating or extremely high temperature
- Changes in friends and social circles
While each of these signs could be caused by other factors (including illness or another type of drug or even an emotional problem) it’s important not to ignore them and talk with your teen. Get help, if necessary, from a site like www.stopaddiction.com. Because bath salts are a relatively new phenomenon, the long-term effects of use aren’t known yet, meaning that it’s important to stop their use as soon as possible.
While bath salts are currently at the top of the designer drug food chain, with the increased awareness and new laws surrounding its manufacture and sale, it’s only a matter of time before they fade into the background and a new drug takes its place. Parents and others have to stay vigilant for all signs of drug use; before the hot new thing becomes the hot new killer.
Image from Spiritual Herbs via Flickr’s Creative Commons
Kerry Ann Roberts is a school counselor in a large school district and has seen firsthand the effects of drug use on her students.
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