Dec 8, 2015 | By Tim Stoddart

Bath Salts – A Dangerous Drug with Violent Side Effects

Synthetic Drug Addiction

Long Term Effects of Bath Salts

Bath Salts made lots of news headlines in the year of 2015. Horrific stories were published by a multitude of news stories, yet not much credible information regarding the long term effects of bath salts has been published.

Bath salts have serious side effects, both physically and mentally. Let’s look deeper into how bath salts affect the users.

What are Bath Salts?

Bath salts, also marketed as “plant food” or “phone cleaner”, are a fairly new group of drugs that have been growing in popularity over the past few years. Not to be confused with personal care products, such as Epsom salts, this so-called designer drug is dangerous and its composition is highly variable from batch to batch. The packages of this drug are marked “not for human consumption” in order for drug makers to skirt the law. Common brand names for bath salts include:

  • White lightning
  • Vanilla sky
  • Ivory wave
  • Cloud 9

Bath salts are a synthesized, amphetamine-like drug that is similar to the alkaloid substance called cathinone. Cathinone is a naturally occurring substance that is found in the Catha edulis shrub, which is indigenous to parts of eastern Africa. Although this drug is most typically smoked, it can also be snorted or injected. The short-term intoxicating effects of a bath salt high can include the following:

  • Euphoria
  • Hyperactivity
  • Paranoia
  • Delusional thoughts
  • Hallucinations
  • Increased heart rate
  • Heightened blood pressure
  • Behavioral changes

Since designer drugs are a fairly new part of the drug scene, the long term effects of bath salts are still largely unknown. However, nearly 23,000 emergency room visits have been linked to the abuse of this substance annually.

Bath Salts and the Zombie Apocalypse

Zombies are popular in literature and television, and many people like to jokingly refer to preparing for the zombie apocalypse. However, flesh-eating humans aren’t as funny when this behavior becomes a reality.

In 2012, Miami police were shocked to be dispatched to a grisly crime scene. A nude male was found literally chewing and ripping off pieces of another male’s face, apparently driven to madness by smoking bath salts.

The assailant, 31-year-old Rudy Eugene, was only stopped after an officer fired several shots, eventually killing him. The victim was rushed to a local hospital, where doctors reported that 75-80 percent of his face had been ripped apart by Eugene’s drug-fueled hunger for human flesh.

Another disturbing attack in 2012 was also accredited to the assailant using bath salts. 31 year old Carly Murphy apparently smoked bath salts in a hospital just 2 days following the birth of her baby. She viciously attacked hospital staff, beating doctors and nurses with super-human strength. She also attacked officers by biting and attempting to chew at their flesh.

The Straight Dope on Bath Salts

Although bath salts are available over the counter at places like smoke shops and some convenience stores, this substance is anything but innocuous. Why does smoking these white crystals cause people to become unhinged and brutally attack those around them?

As mentioned earlier, this cathinone-based substance works in a manner similar to drugs like cocaine, methamphetamine or ecstasy by:

  • Increasing dopamine levels
  • Raising levels of serotonin
  • Causing surges in levels of norepinephrine

However, bath salts are even more potent than the street drugs they are meant to mimic, with some research suggesting that they may be up to 10 times as potent as cocaine.

The quick and dramatic surges in these important neurotransmitters often results in a state of psychosis, and users develop high levels of physical strength from these chemical releases. Although it is unclear why so many users of bath salts begin to attack others in a cannibalistic manner, people high on this drug are for some reason driven to act in violent, brutal and predatory ways.

Mental Effects of Bath Salts

The recipe for each batch of bath salts often varies wildly because manufacturers switch up their ingredients in order to avoid using illegal substances. Although the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) outlaws active components of designer drugs as they become aware of them, manufacturers are usually as least one step ahead of the authorities by integrating currently non-listed intoxicating chemicals.

Thus, the variability of this drug makes predicting the long term effects of bath salts very difficult. However, aside from developing psychosis, bath salt users are at risk for developing the following mental issues:

  • Delirium
  • Agitation
  • Insomnia
  • Suicidal thoughts or actions
  • Panic attacks
  • Extreme confusion
  • Dependency and addiction

Physical Effects of Bath Salts

The amphetamine-like action of bath salts produces an intense stress upon the human body. Physiologic consequences of bath salts can include:

  • Kidney failure
  • Liver damage
  • Lack of appetite
  • Heart arrhythmia
  • Heart attack
  • Stroke
  • Headaches
  • Increased body temperature
  • Teeth grinding
  • Nosebleeds
  • Dizziness
  • Incontinence
  • Muscle fiber degradation, possibly leading to heart failure and death

Unfortunately, many people who experiment with bath salts end up dying as a result. Over the past decade, there has been a 98 percent increase in deaths due to consumption of designer drugs.

Drug Prohibition and the Creation of the Designer Drug Market

Given the devastating consequences of smoking bath salts, it’s surprising that so many people choose to use this drug. However, addicts often turn to designer drugs in order to satiate their craving to get high.

Since the components of designer drugs change so often, they are difficult to detect in most drug tests. Thus, for people who are on probation or are otherwise a potential candidate for drug testing, these drugs offer a way to get high without facing legal consequences.

To any educated social critic, the use of bath salts and other designer drugs sounds strikingly familiar to the consumption of dangerous Prohibition-era home brews. When the U.S. government banned the production, sale and consumption of alcohol in 1920, people certainly didn’t stop drinking. They were merely forced to purchase their intoxicants in an unregulated and dangerous underground market. In fact, consumption of moonshine, the liquor of choice for Prohibition era drinkers, was often contaminated due to unsafe brewing practices. Many people died from imbibing these deadly cocktails.

Essentially, drug laws are forcing drug users to find loopholes in the rules in order to get high. Unfortunately, drug abuse and addiction is a social issue that will never be completely eradicated. However, criminalizing the mental illness of substance abuse has resulted in creating an underground drug economy that profits off of human suffering, senseless deaths and the refusal of a national government to address the problem at its core.

While the use of bath salts itself is quite disturbing, the reasons influencing the increased popularity of this drug are even more so. The next time you hear a story about a bath salt user, take the time to reflect upon why people are driven to such extremes in order to get high. The true long term effects of bath salts are yet to be discovered, but perhaps society can help to alleviate these consequences by offering support and treatment for the users of this drug.

One response to “Bath Salts – A Dangerous Drug with Violent Side Effects

  • Stacey Parker

    7 years ago

    I am going threw a cps for almost 4 1/2 yrs now. I was married for 15yrs to this guy well around 31 or 32 of never knowing about drugs he brought meth in our house with are 3 children we had together. I left him cuz he held a gun up to my head & said either do it or take the trigger, so i did it. Little did i know what this drug did to u or how it affected anything u did in life. Well he started changing thinking i was cheating on him, cops after him, demons, beating the shit out of me and pulling me by my front hair and throwing me up against a wall or the house, he called cops on me cuz i fought back & finally threw him in the garage door saying dont u ever touch me again. Cops came made me leave get a call he has my 2 youngest kids in a room with 3 or 4 guns lock and loaded while he stood at door saying no1 is coming in. Had to go pick my girls up after i warned them not 2 leave my kids alone with him. Now hes been in to pshyc wards and went missing had to file missing person report on him and till this day he thinks wierdly & is schizophrenia really bad & really dosent want nothing to do with his kids. So i left him not looking back moved in with my mom well i was clean taking UAs for cps his best friend came over which i knew kids called him uncle well he saw my pop put meth in it and bam was drugged didnt pass my ua so now i was screwed up cuz my ex husband and his friend have been setting me up since day 1. But no1 believed in some1 being drugged the way i did or it can even happen so anyways a cps case formed and ive been fighting them like crazy jumping threw every freaking hoop. Well the cps worker long story short fell in love with my husband & had to leave the company of the kent office of DSHS/CPS. But when she was on the case she made it so hard for me on anything i did. My husband was put on a pedal stool and still is till this day. Well that cps worker finally kicked me out of my moms for being drugged 4 1/2 yrs ago so i havent had my kids since then. Well when she kicked me out i had to live in my car on the streets so theybtold i couldnt be at my moms nothing so i went to stay in r old neighbourhood where we use to live. I met an old friend that i hate now started dating him well i started noticing every morning i woke up i was numb from my waste down and didnt remember anything, tired, could move for about 20 30mins after waking up, slurred speech, confused. But then sometimes i felt high as hell.
    But i remember my bf talking about ecstasy & date rape drug and loves going to raves. Well he had some bad people in his life where these people rewired my car where i had no electricity but if i opened my glove box the heat would turn on, hot wired another alarm in my car. So i had to hot wire my front lights with a toggle switch for night time. Anyways i kept telling cps my mom and any1 who gave a crap i was being drugged but no1 believed me. So now after being drugged that whole time my question is.
    I was being drugged from meth, bath salts, ecstasy or the date rape drug so i came down with something that i have never seen no1 ever have or no1 has even heard of.
    Its called Ekbomb disease which is Dullisonal paracites. I feel & see tiny bugs everywhere especially at night alot. I feel them run down my face constantly, going in my mouth, eyes, nose & feels like i have bugs always in my hair. I have been to Drs and its getting so old cuz no1 can figure out a cure for it. I hate my life every day cuz i have to live with what i have. I have had it for almost 4yrs now and let me tell u its the most hardest thing to deal with and not just want to end ur life. Ive tried everything and the only thing that seems to work is drinking which cps dont like that whatever, zannys which work great, vals & Herion is 1 of the top 1s to use when i look it up cuz it takes the sensation away but i dont want to do that. So what do i do in my case on what i have cuz cps wont listen nor does any1 else they think i am still on drugs and no i am not.
    Plz help. Ive looked it up and already did research on it like 4yrs of it. But i need a antidote to change my chemical imbalance in my brain be4 i just say screw it cuz really i am so tired of feeling them & dealing with them. Its getting close to loosing it and give up.
    But living with at 1st i couldnt deal at all but now i can deal alot more than what i did be4 but still its getting to me i cant do my normal stuff anymore, outside, walks, be around people or sometimes family its embarrassing. So plz if u have any news for me i would love to hear it cuz i just really wanna call it a rap and then i wont have to deal anymore.
    Sorry so long ty 4 listening

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