Bath Salts Revisited

The knowledge of artificial bath salts is working its way across the country although I am not sure how far it has spread. The compound, with a very long chemical name formally is shortened to the name MDPV. There are other similar designer drugs that have appearing on the scene fast enough that governmental control has been unable to keep up with their emergence. MDPV is new to the United States but had been around for a few years in Europe. Another similar compound, mephedrone has been blamed for significant loss of life in England. Some states in the US have already banned MDPV and others are considering bans. Considering the significant effects it has had on communities in Pennsylvania, it is likely it will soon be banned here. A measure to ban it has already passed the State Senate, and is pending in the House.

A recent incident that illustrates it's potential dangers occurred a few days ago. The police were dispatched to a call on a domestic disturbance where a man was tearing the wiring out of the walls of a woman's home. Upon attempting to subdue the man, he became combative, was tazed twice and still put up a fight, tearing the pocket off one officer's uniform. In the end, several police officers were injured. The man had been shooting up bath salts. He is facing numerous charges at this point. He is one of the lucky ones who lived through an overdose of MDPV but many have died. These cases of PCP like strength are not unusual. We frequently see patients showing up in the ED acting like this that we strongly suspect are using bath salts. The problem is, we cannot prove it and even if we could, there is nothing that can be done to stop it. As of a few weeks ago, 22 admissions to this hospital were estimated to be caused by complications of bath salts and those were only estimates. I know of three admissions this week to psychiatry alone that we are fairly certain were motivated by bath salt induced behaviors. That kind of number rivals alcohol and outnumbers opiates on an average week.

One of the most recent stimulant compounds to be banned in the US was ephedra. Popping ephedra in the past was a bad idea and there were people who died from complications from it. Cases of psychosis or heart problems did occur, but nothing to the extent that this, substance has caused and the highly addictive nature of it makes it an even greater danger. MDPV is a far greater threat, producing a high compared to cocaine and Ecstasy and similar to Ecstasy in structure.

For those that advocate legalizing drugs as it is a "victimless" crime, I hope they stop to see the thousands of dollars of property damage a bath salt user on a binge can cause. I hope they stop to talk to the parents whose only child just died of an overdose of what they thought was a "safe" high since it was legal, after all. I hope they see the people who are involuntarily committed to psychiatric units and forever have their records marred by the commitment because they were floridly psychotic from excessive bath salt use. And I hope they see the medical and law enforcement workers that are injured trying to restrain a violent and irrational user on a wild binge. I see lots of victims here.

I hope that Sen Charles Schumer pushes ahead with his drive to ban MDPV as even though there are multiple agencies that must be involved before a national ban can happen, the sooner it happens, the better. Which will not be soon enough.