Bath salts — sort of, anyway— have become such a drug craze that several states are considering imposing a ban.
Bath salts — which people smoke, snort and even shoot up — are apparently so powerful that, according to the Washington Post, ingesting them can result in “paranoia, rapid heart rates and suicidal thoughts,” and were responsible for an overdose and a case of self-mutilation.
But don’t think you can get the effects — if you wanted them — from Calgon. Rather, it’s a euphemism head shops might use to sell anything mephedrone and methylenedioxypyrovalerone-laced, over the counter. Writes Lindsay Beyerstein,
Despite what the media would have you believe, these designer drugs are not ingredients in common household products. You cannot get high on actual bath salts or plant food. Sorry. Gardeners, if you bought exotic imported “plant food” online, and it arrived in an impossibly tiny packet, don’t feed it to your plants.
And at best, it’s “a horrible trip.” So have reports of the great bath salt drug bust been greatly exaggerated? Not necessarily: Ivory Wave, Bliss, White Lightning and Hurricane Charlie are indeed on the rise. They’re just nothing the average kid can find at the average Walgreens — and as such, less of a household menace than some reports might lead you to believe.
Weekly Pulse: Don’t Snort Bath Salts, Kids [Huffington Post]
‘Bath Salts’ Are Growing Drug Problem, Say Officials [Washington Post]