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River Road cycling fatalities highlight spread of ‘bath salts'
    #14414653 - 05/07/11 11:03 AM (12 years, 8 months ago)

http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20110506/ARTICLES/110509757/1004?p=4&tc=pg

The white, powdery substance found on Thomas Grooms' shirt, nose and mustache might be a sign that a troubling national phenomenon has struck Wilmington.

Designer drugs known as "bath salts" are being sold for between $15 and $60 in convenience stores and head shops around the country, packaged under such nondescript names as Lady Bubbles, Hurricane Charlie and Vanilla Sky. Authorities say the packets of powder are most commonly snorted and mimic feelings associated with methamphetamines or hallucinogens. But they are sold, in most cases, legally, with manufacturers exploiting a loophole in federal laws that seemingly allows drugs to be sold under the facade that the substances are not intended for human consumption.

A State Bureau of Investigation analysis of evidence collected during the investigation of Grooms, who is charged with killing a father and son with his vehicle while they were cycling on River Road last month, suggests the suspect was using mephedrone, a synthetic stimulant commonly found in bath salts, before the collision.

If the allegations prove true, the fatal wreck would highlight the latest drug scourge that law enforcement officials and poison control centers say is ravaging the United States.

Several state legislatures, including North Carolina's, moved recently to ban the substances as the dangers of using them are being realized. News headlines have been dominated in recent months with stories about users exhibiting bizarre and violent behavior. Beyond snorting the powder, patients visiting emergency rooms have reported ingesting it orally or even rectally.

"We've had people use it every way you can imagine besides sticking it in their ear," said Mark Ryan, director of the Louisiana Poison Center.

In West Virginia, a man arrested Monday for animal cruelty charges told police he used bath salts before traveling to his neighbor's house wearing ladies undergarments and killing their pygmy goat, according to local media outlets there. Other states have reported cases of self-mutilation, suicide and homicide.

While some experts believe bath salts were first introduced in Louisiana, they have now spread, and not even Wilmington is bucking the trend.

Gov. Beverly Perdue signed legislation earlier this year that outlaws mephedrone and other emerging drugs beginning June 1. Authorities say the ban is a positive step, but some fear that it is only a matter of time before a new designer drug is introduced to replace the old one..

For poison control centers, the ban on bath salts could not come a moment too soon. North Carolina has noted a surge in emergency room visits linked to the drugs. Doctors have reported users experiencing strong hallucinations as well as extreme anxiety and agitation.

Anna Dulaney, assistant director of education at the Charlotte-based Carolinas Poison Center, said the organization received about nine calls related to human exposure to bath salts in all of 2010. That figure has already been surpassed 20-fold this year, with more the center fielding 185 such calls as of May 5.

"Typically, the calls are not coming from the users themselves but from the health care providers who treat them in the emergency room," she said, explaining that doctors and nurses are still learning how to manage the issue.

The same explosion seen in North Carolina mirrors the growth experienced nationally. Jessica Wehrman, spokeswoman for the American Association of Poison Control Centers, said that as of May 4, there have been 2,055 calls about human exposure lodged nationwide. That marks a huge rise from 2010, which saw only 302 calls for the year.

On the west coast, the issue seems to have taken on new momentum after Army Sgt. David Stewart shot his wife in the head before turning the gun himself.

The murder-suicide happened on Interstate 5 in Thurston County, Wa., early last month. When authorities pulled his body from the car, white granules fell out of the vehicle, Coronor Gary Warnock said in a recent phone interview. Later, investigators examining Stewart's body found a 1,000-milligram jar of Lady Bubbles-brand bath salts in his pocket.

Authorities found more evidence of bath salts at the couples' home, where they also discovered the body of the couples' 5-year-old son, Warnock said. The boy had been suffocated with a plastic bag.

The Thurston County coroner's office has ordered tests of the couple's blood in order to determine whether either was taking bath salts at the time of their deaths. The investigation into who killed the boy was ongoing.

Beyond packaging them as bath salts, the drugs are also being sold under the guise of plant food, toilet bowl cleaner, stain remover and insecticide, said Ryan, the Louisiana Poison Control director. They usually contain a label warning that the product is not fit for human consumption, but critics say the disclaimer is a ruse to make it appear as if the product is intended to be innocuous.

Though law enforcement is keenly aware of the perils associated with these drugs, their hands are tied as long as the substance remains legal.

"There's not really much we can do except try to educate parents and people taking and letting them know its dangerous," said Capt. David Ciamillo, commander of the New Hanover County Vice and Narcotics Unit.

In the River Road wreck, Grooms was initially charged with drug possession as authorities assumed the substance was cocaine, but that charge was later dropped after the analysis showed the powder was actually mephedrone. Grooms still faces charges of second-degree murder and felony death by a motor vehicle, among several other things.

Authorities say the bath salts epidemic highlights what has become a pattern in the nation's war on drugs: A rogue chemist creates a synthetic drug that generates loads of money until its harmful effects come to the attention of law enforcement and then legislators scramble to ban it, only to have a new substance rise to replace the old one.

Ryan, citing his own research, says he suspects there is already a half-dozen or so other substances that unscrupulous chemists are poised to release once bath salts become more widely outlawed in the United States.

Brian Freskos: 343-2327

On Twitter: @BrianFreskos


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Registered: 10/10/10
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Re: River Road cycling fatalities highlight spread of ‘bath salts' [Re: 5-HT2A]
    #14419361 - 05/08/11 12:27 PM (12 years, 8 months ago)

I bet if they would do some real research on the family life and  history of some of these idiots that are killing people on this or any sustance for that matter, they would find that it has more to do with the fact that pressures in life and lack of mental health are more to blame than the drug. But doing this would thwart the agenda. Im beginning to think I should start posting in the conspiracies forum.


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"I fart in your general direction!  Your mother was a hampster and your father smelt of elderberries!"


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