DEA SEEKS TEMPORARY CONTROL OF BATH SALTS

DOVER -- The growing use of "bath salts" has caused the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration to plan a temporary control on synthetic
stimulants in the next month, hoping to pull the chemicals from the
public's use.

Over the past few months, communities have seen a rise in interest for
these products, under names like "Ivory Wave," "Purple Wave," "Vanilla
Sky" or "Bliss." The bath salts are also sold in some areas under the
guise of "plant food." The products are being sold widely online and
in retail shops and outlets.

Users aren't placing it in their bath water, as the name suggests, but
rather snorting, smoking and injecting it, despite some labels
claiming the products are not for consumption.

Poison control centers across the country have said they back the
DEA's decision to attempt to ban the chemicals. The centers began
sounding the alarm back in December 2010 when people were calling with
severe reactions including delusions and rapid heart rates. Users
range from teens to people in their 60s.

In 2010, the U.S.'s 57 poison centers received 303 calls about the
so-called bath salts. Between Jan. 1 and Aug. 31 of this year, the
numbers rose to 4,720 calls.

"Poison centers were instrumental in getting the word out to law
enforcement, the medical community and the public about these
extremely dangerous drugs," said Richard Dart, president of the
American Association of Poison Control Centers. "We commend the DEA
for banning the chemicals in bath salts, which have injured and killed
too many people and destroyed too many lives."

Area hospitals have said people have come to the emergency rooms
reporting rapid hearts rates, anxiety and sometimes
hallucinations.

The so-called bath salts are methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV), a
stimulant that doctors say acts similar to Ecstasy when taken. It
mimics chemicals found in cocaine, LSD, MDMA and methamphetamine,
according to the DEA.

Portsmouth Regional Hospital physicians have said people sometimes
become combative and can have paranoid "trips" for several days,
months or beyond. The hospital has seen two or three cases a month so
far this year and Wentworth Douglass Hospital has also seen a few
cases, according to officials.

The substance creates a very severe paranoia that sometimes causes
users to harm themselves or others.

"The psychosis seen in some users is truly remarkable, in a very scary
way," said Mark Ryan, director of the Louisiana Poison Center. "People
high on these drugs have done some bizarre things to themselves and
hurt others around them."

Earlier this year in Maine, a 31-year-old man allegedly imagined
people were crawling out of his mattress and coming to kill him after
taking bath salts. After panicking, paranoia set in and he grabbed his
assault-style rifle and ammunition and ran out of his apartment and
disappeared into the streets until Bangor police officers found him
later standing on a street corner.

Also this year in Pennsylvania, a couple high on bath salts tried to
stab the "90 people living in their walls" while their five-year-old
daughter was in the house, according to a news report.

"The ban can't come quickly enough for me," Ryan said. "I'm ready to
see bath salts washed down the drain."

New Hampshire lawmakers have not yet banned the drug, but 33 states
have started to take action and put some bans in place. Lawmakers in
Maine passed a bill last spring making bath salts illegal in the
state. After many reports in the Bangor, Maine area, police have said
the problems have reached "epidemic" proportions there.

The DEA is planning to focus on three synthetic stimulants
(Mephedrone, 3,4 methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV) and Methylone) for
their proposed ban.

When put into action, the move will make possessing and selling the
chemicals or products that contain them illegal in the U.S. for at
least one year while the DEA and the United States Department of
Health and Human Services continues their study on whether the
chemicals should be permanently controlled.

There is a possible six-month extension on the proposed ban beyond the
first year.

The DEA said it hopes to ban the chemicals as Schedule I substances,
the most restrictive category, which is reserved for unsafe and highly
abused substances with no currently accepted medical use in the United
States. Marijuana, LSD, peyote and Ecstasy are some substances
currently listed as Schedule I.

"This imminent action by the DEA demonstrates that there is no
tolerance for those who manufacture, distribute, or sell these drugs
anywhere in the country, and that those who do will be shut down,
arrested, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," said DEA
Administrator Michele M. Leonhart. "DEA has made it clear we will not
hesitate to use our emergency scheduling authority to control these
dangerous chemicals that pose a significant and growing threat to our
nation."