how do people use bath salts as drugs

Bath salts or monkey dust come in a powdered or crystallised form which can be swallowed, smoked, injected or snorted. Subjective effects are similar to MDMA or cocaine[14] but with a duration of 5–6 gabapentinoid benefit and risk stratification: mechanisms over myth pmc hours. Both substances cause a rapid onset of action in the central nervous system,[15] and stimulant toxicity. Bath salts are sometimes used as a cheap substitute for stimulants like cocaine.

Is There Treatment for Addiction to Bath Salts?

The US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) announced emergency scheduling in 2011 to control MDPV, mephedrone and methylone, all chemicals found in bath salts. In addition to effects above, reports of death from individuals abusing drugs in this class indicate the seriousness of the risk users are taking when ingesting these products. These synthetic substances are abused for their desired effects, such as euphoria and alertness. Other effects include psychological effects such as confusion, acute psychosis, agitation, combativeness, aggression, violent and self-destructive behavior paranoia, hallucinations, and delusions.

how do people use bath salts as drugs

What are the symptoms of bath salts intoxication?

Bath salts have caused a number of deaths and been blamed for a handful of suicides and murders. Users can also develop what is called «excited delirium.» When this happens, people get dehydrated, their muscle tissue breaks down, and they can go into kidney failure and die. Bath Salts are a brand name for Synthetic Cathinones, which are drugs made in labs.

Bath Salts Withdrawal Symptoms

In the short-term, Bath Salts can make your heart beat very fast, make you feel overly friendly, very angry and violent, make you see things that aren’t real, and cause panic attacks. These are not the fizzy products like epsom salt that people use while bathing. Bath Salts look like white or brown crystals and are usually found in plastic or foil packages. They are similar to the Khat plant that grows in Africa, but the human-made version is much stronger and can be very dangerous. Bath salts are a lab-made recreational drug used by people to temporarily produce intense feelings of joy. The fine powder in small packets doesn’t even resemble the large crystals intended for a soak in the tub.

Bath Salts Overdose Symptoms

In total, 109 cities were raided, 91 people were arrested, and 167,000 bags of bath salts were seized. In 2012, calls about bath salts to poison control centers peaked with 2,697 and declined alcohol intoxication each year after that. The treatment of bath salts intoxication involves providing intensive medical monitoring and attention to address the specific symptoms of the individual.

Caron Outpatient Treatment Center

Unlike Epsom salts, Dead Sea salts, or other types of salts you might use to game up your bath time, synthetic cathinones are a powerful and illegal drug. Synthetic cathinones is the scientific name for the drug commonly known as bath salts. This video for middle school students explains how synthetic cathinones, commonly known as bath salts, affect the brain and the body. Check out the Mind Matters Series with other drugs and the body related videos and other teaching tools.

how do people use bath salts as drugs

how do people use bath salts as drugs

That number increased to 1,782 calls in just the first four months of 2011 and to more than 6,000 calls by the end of that year. Interestingly, there were fewer calls to poison-control centers in 2012 and 2013 (2,691 and are toads poisonous to humans vet-approved safety facts and faq 996, respectively). The areas where these drugs are used have also seemed to expand; originally, most of the calls to poison-control centers came from Louisiana, Florida, and Kentucky but later came from 33 states.

  1. The drug user and those around him are at risk as long as the drug is being abused.
  2. Bath salts are a lab-made recreational drug used by people to temporarily produce intense feelings of joy.
  3. Severe reactions may include aggression, violent behavior, adverse mental health symptoms, and psychosis.

The effects of the drugs also vary based on the route of administration; they can be swallowed, snorted, injected, or inserted into the rectum or vagina. If a family sees any of these signs of bath salts use, it is vital to get the person professional help as soon as possible. The drug user and those around him are at risk as long as the drug is being abused. If the drug user can’t stop using the drug on his own, then he must be gotten into an addiction treatment program at the first possible moment. Withdrawal side effects from bath salts aren’t considered life-threatening as with other drugs. However, as mentioned the exact chemical make-up of bath salts can vary and chemicals can cause unknown and unexpected reactions.

In purest form, the drug is a light brown or white crystallized powder. It usually comes in plastic bags or foil labeled as bath salts, glass cleaner, or even plant food. Certain synthetic cathinones are used in medications to treat specific conditions. Others, such as the ones found in bath salts, are illegal in the U.S.

You can get intense withdrawal symptoms when you stop taking them, which make it hard not to use again. You can have what is called “excited delirium.” If you have this, you will get dehydrated, your muscle tissue will begin to break down, and your kidneys may stop working. Snorting and injecting bath salts are the most dangerous methods.

Containers of bath salts will also have warnings, such as “not suitable for human consumption.” Manufacturers do this in an attempt to avoid legal restrictions. Read on to learn more about bath salts, how they affect a person’s body and mind, and where to get support for substance misuse. In other words, it is quite similar to amphetamine in terms of elation and stimulation. It gained popularity because it was legal to purchase for about 18 months after it was first released.

The cathinones found in bath salts were made illegal in the United States in 2012. Bath salts are a designer drug of abuse with reports of dangerous intoxication from emergency departments across the US. «Bath salts» are not a hygiene product used for bathing, as the name might imply, but are dangerous synthetic («man-made») cathinones.