Violence and calls to poison control centers about 'bath salts' designer drugs have skyrocketed since 2010

[Emily]

"These drugs perhaps in some way turn off the higher functioning areas of the brain and really reduce people to a very primal instinct - lights on, nobody home kind of thing. They really don't know what's going on either,? said Dr. Alexander Garrard of the Upstate Poison Control Center.

Bath Salts: Deep in the Heart of America's New Drug Nightmare

June 14 2012, 12:20 PM ET
by Natasha Vargas-Cooper

After decades of misguided hysteria, the War on Drugs may have an epidemic worth freaking out about, and it's spreading across state and demographic lines at the speed of the Internet.
[snip]
The last four decades have seen plenty of whipped-up hysteria about various fad intoxicants of the moment. But the fear generated by bath salts seems well earned. Dr. Mark Ryan, director at the Louisiana Poison Center, called bath salts "the worst drug" he has seen in his 20 years there. "With LSD, you might see pink elephants, but with this drug, you see demons, aliens, extreme paranoia, heart attacks, and superhuman strength like Superman," Ryan has said. "If you had a reaction, it was a bad reaction."

Starting in late 2010, an influx of violent, irrational, self-destructive users began to congest hospital ERs throughout the States. A 19-year-old West Virginia man claimed he was high on bath salts when he stabbed his neighbor's pygmy goat while wearing women's underwear; a Mississippi man skinned himself alive while under the influence. Users staggered in, or were carried in, consumed by extreme panic, tachycardia, deep paranoia, and heart-attack symptoms. (Perhaps the most infamous incident tied to bath salts is Rudy Eugene's horrific naked face-eating attack in Miami in May, although conclusive toxicology reports have yet to be released; still, the fact that this feels like the closest thing to a credible explanation for chewing a homeless man's head for 18 minutes speaks volumes about the drug's reputation.)

Because the chemicals most often found in bath salts ? mephedrone, methylenedioxypyrovalerone, and methylone ? were not outlawed initially, a nearly year-and-a-half period ensued where, to the horror of law enforcement, salts were sold legally and widely, not only in head shops, but in gas stations and convenience stores all over the U.S. In 2010, 304 calls were made to poison control centers nationwide regarding bath salts. A year later, the calls skyrocketed to 6,138....

Police suspect bath salts in bizarre KCMO attack

 

[Emily]

Re: Violence and calls to poison control centers about 'bath salts' designer drugs have skyrocketed since 2010

Several Utica residents arrested in unrelated bath salts incidents

By - STAFF REPORT
Observer-Dispatch
Posted Jun 24, 2012 @ 01:53 PM
Last update Jun 24, 2012 @ 04:04 PM
[snip]
When the officer asked her what was wrong she became aggressive by lunging at him and attempted to bite him, police said.

As the officer restrained the woman she continued to scream that she wanted to kill someone and eat them, police said...

Man on 'bath salts' attacks woman with shovel, Glendale police say

June 22, 2012 | 12:29 pm

A 20-year-old Glendale man was arrested Thursday after police said he struck an elderly woman in the head with a shovel and then barricaded himself inside his apartment. It took a rubber bullet and Taser before officers were finally able to subdue him.

The man, Robert William White, sat handcuffed in a wheelchair yelling ?God loves all you!? several times to bystanders as paramedics removed him from his apartment..

(The elderly woman had asked White to stop swinging his shovel at birds prior to the attack according to witnesses.)

Hospitalized man possibly on bath salts

Barbara Carreno, spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement Agency, said the agency becomes aware of a potentially harmful substance primarily from poison control centers. Although she could not specify when bath salts entered the U.S., she said the original chemicals used to make the drug originated in China and India.

(I get the impression that the unusual expression of extreme aggression as biting behavior started after the ban on the original ingredients in Oct. of 2011. I've wondered if there is a new formulation in circulation making the mixture even more of public health hazard than it was originally. But the phenomena could just be driven by the drug's more widespread use leading to combinations with other drugs, and possible neurological damage done to people as the usage period gets longer.)

Bath Salts warning from mid-south mother

Posted: Jun 22, 2012 7:43 PM PDT Updated: Jun 22, 2012 8:49 PM PDT
By Janice Broach
MEMPHIS, TN -

(WMC-TV) -A warning about the dangers of bath salts and synthetic drugs, from a mother who witnessed the damage they can cause first hand.

We talked with the mother of the 17-year-old girl. She has a horrifying story of a nightmare that has not ended.

[snip]
"She started crying and she said can you help me momma? I don't know what I'm doing. She attacked one girl who was here. She went to bed the next morning. She seemed ok then later on in the afternoon she attacked 3 girls who were here," said Henderson.

Henderson says her daughter attacked her son.

"She just started attacking him and biting him. Then my nephew tried to break it up and they couldn't control her. She was super strong like," Henderson stated...

(Her mother found out she had been taking the synthetic drug mixture called 'bath salts' several times a week prior to becoming ill. Unfortunately she is hospitalized and not recovering at this point.)

 

[Vibrant62]

Re: Violence and calls to poison control centers about 'bath salts' designer drugs have skyrocketed since 2010

An observation: with modern technology, as fast as one entity is outlawed another is 'designed' to take its place [often in the space of days or weeks]; the more exotic such new entities are, the greater the risks to users as so little is known about the drugs, their effects, and their risks.

In the UK and Europe, as soon as it was known that these drugs were to be outlawed, reports were received that the dealers had hundereds of still 'legal' variants to take their place.

A new legal high goes on sale every week, says EU drugs agency

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/apr/26/new-legal-highs-one-a-week

IMHO a global think tank is needed to reconsider how to tackle the problem because the current strategies used cant and dont work. Its a global problem that needs a global solution.

 

[Emily]

Re: Violence and calls to poison control centers about 'bath salts' designer drugs have skyrocketed since 2010

An observation: with modern technology, as fast as one entity is outlawed another is 'designed' to take its place [often in the space of days or weeks]; the more exotic such new entities are, the greater the risks to users as so little is known about the drugs, their effects, and their risks.

In the UK and Europe, as soon as it was known that these drugs were to be outlawed, reports were received that the dealers had hundereds of still 'legal' variants to take their place.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/apr/26/new-legal-highs-one-a-week

IMHO a global think tank is needed to reconsider how to tackle the problem because the current strategies used cant and dont work. Its a global problem that needs a global solution.

I agree it would be ideal to have a global effort, or to at least study what works and what doesn't and apply successful strategies if they translate across cultures. I just read that China is finding that a new approach to dealing with addiction is more effective for them than a previous approach they were using. The new method is based on education and voluntary treatment that reconnects addicts to the community.

As for the high profile attack that made the synthetic drug named 'bath salts' so high profile, either it was a rare manifestation of cannabis psychosis, or there is an unknown factor here.

Marijuana Found in Face-Chewer's Body, No Other Drugs: Medical Examiner

"Within the limits of current technology by both laboratories, marijuana is the only drug identified in the body of Mr. Rudy Eugene," the statement said.

Psychiatrist Delvena Thomas pointed out that there are not tests for many synthetic drugs or bath salts.

?They're creating so many different synthetic-type drugs or synthetic bath salts to where you don't have a test to actually examine or test for these substances," she said.

I think there is something new tied to these biting attacks. A man in Texas just attacked a roommate's dog the same way and with the same ferocity that Mr. Eugene attacked Mr. Poppo in Miami. Allegedly he told someone that he had taken K-2 which sounds like it has an even more mercurial formulation than what's called 'bath salts.'

A person on Facebook who's in the drug treatment field said he's hoping that if a new drug formula is behind all this and it was accidentally devised, that the person responsible will quit selling it voluntarily due to the intense negative media coverage.