Bath salt drugs: What they are, effects, and overdose

Bath salts can be detrimental to human health and can potentially cause erratic behavior, hallucinations, and delusions.[12] This is often due to their wakefulness-promoting effect, leading to insomnia. If you or someone you know has suicidal thoughts while using bath salts, call or text 988 (the national suicide hotline). If you feel sick or like something is wrong, get immediate medical help. Call 911 if you have any loss of muscle control, chest pain, or difficulty breathing, or if you or someone you know overdoses. Drinking salted water once after intense exercise in hot conditions is usually enough to replace lost sweat. Normally, your sodium needs are met by your next meal or snack unless you’ve sweated excessively.

Are bath salts illegal in the U.S.?

The fine powder in small packets doesn’t even resemble the large crystals intended for a soak in the tub. The drug merely borrows the name of an innocuous product so it can be sold openly. You’ll need at least one person who will stay drug-free during the session. The easiest way to lookup drug information, identify pills, check interactions and set up your own personal medication records.

Legal & Privacy

Recently, khat use has spread to other countries, and much stronger, man-made (synthetic) cathinones (marketed as “bath salts” to circumvent laws regarding controlled substances) have become drugs of abuse. These products, which are frequently labeled “not for alcohol use disorder diagnosis and treatment human consumption,” are not used for bathing. Should bath salts wane in popularity, authorities say they have no doubt new psychoactive designer drugs will take their place. “Whatever supplants bath salts will likely be just as dangerous,” says Goldberger.

Health Risks, Effects of Bath Salts

“We tested one package of bath salts obtained from New York City and found it contained a synthetic cannabinoid and caffeine and another one from Venice Beach, California, that contained 100% lidocaine,” says Ryan. “The clinical picture will be different for each.” Immunoassay screens routinely used for drugs of abuse in emergency departments don’t detect MDPV and other components of bath salts, adding to clinical confusion. “Poison centers get called a lot when a drug is new.” As clinicians see more cases and learn how to respond, the calls drop off, he says. In 2011, poison centers fielded 6138 calls from hospital emergency departments for advice on how to treat bath salts abuse. Psychoactive designer street drugs called “bath salts” have many potentially dangerous adverse effects, including extreme neurological and psychiatric changes, some long lasting. They contain types of synthetic cathinones, which are banned in the U.S.

The effects of bath salts are reported to be similar to other types of psychostimulants. The chemical composition of bath salts can vary widely, producing a range of drug affects—both short and long-term—from using bath salts. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) reports that MDPV, a common synthetic cathinone found in bath salts, is ten times more powerful than cocaine, is very similar to Ecstasy in how it makes the user feel.

Treatment for a bath salts addiction is similar to what might be seen with other substance use disorders. Rehab centers typically employ behavioral therapy techniques such as cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational enhancement therapy, and contingency management. 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 addition, severe depression and suicide are common with bath salts withdrawal. For these reasons, it’s highly recommended that anyone who is addicted to bath salts and wants to stop seek professional help to do so.

Eating too much sodium may also lead to low levels of other nutrients in the body. Diets too high in sodium cause your body to excrete calcium, which can harm bone health. Consuming bruises: symptoms causes diagnosis treatment remedies prevention too much salt may also increase the risk of stomach cancer by stimulating the production of inflammatory proteins and damaging cells in the gastrointestinal tract.

Salt is added to these foods during manufacturing or cooking to enhance taste. For example, a single-serve bag of salted pretzels can contain over 1,000 mg of sodium, which is over 43% of the DV. Here’s everything you need to know about sodium, including how it benefits health, dietary sources, daily needs, and the downsides of consuming too much. These compounds smell bad and have the potential to cause serious burns. Amines are not the nicest of substances (that’s why we are generally repulsed by the smell of amines—they have a strong fishy odor,) and these impurities can even induce severe allergic reactions.

While adding a pinch of salt to water remains below the Recommended Daily Allowance, it’s important to be mindful of overall sodium intake and losses. At rehab facilities, addiction experts use evidence-based techniques to help clients quit synthetic cathinones, includingflakka. The team of experts develops treatment plans that address each patient’s marijuana statistics in the us specific needs. Regular use of bath salts can result in a severe substance use disorder. Addiction is a brain disease that causes people to engage in compulsive drug-seeking behavior despite knowing the consequences. Those addicted to syntheticcathinones need to take increasingly higher doses of the substance to achieve their desired high.

This designer drug’s name was derived from its similar appearance to Epsom salts used in the bath. However, despite the similar appearance, this drug has a different chemical makeup. Bath salts are also available in tablet or capsule form, which can be taken orally. A person may also dissolve the bath salts into a solution to inject into their veins. Synthetic cathinones are similar to certain substances found in the khat plant.

The U.S. government passed the Synthetic Drug Abuse Prevention Act (SDAPA) in July 2012. This act listed mephedrone, methylone, and MDPV as Schedule I controlled substances. These effects may develop due to taking high levels of bath salts or using them chronically.

You can chew the leaves of the khat plant to get a mild stimulant effect. The human-made version of cathinone in bath salts is stronger and more dangerous. The US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) announced emergency scheduling in 2011 to control MDPV, mephedrone and methylone, all chemicals found in bath salts. Adding a pinch of salt to water can replenish electrolytes after sweating, but it’s typically unnecessary for daily hydration.

1. As mentioned above, the sodium required for normal physiologic functioning is around 500 mg daily.
2. Mephedrone and methylene, two khat-derived bath salts, are very similar in action to amphetamines.
3. Bath salts are a designer drug of abuse with reports of dangerous intoxication from emergency departments across the US.
4. The drugs became popular among teens and club-goers after 2010, yet recent surveys show less than 1% of teens today tried them in the past year.

Though sodium is necessary for health, consuming too much sodium through high-salt foods can significantly harm health and increase disease risk. Your body needs a small amount of sodium to perform vital processes. Sodium is one of the body’s most important electrolytes (minerals with an electric charge). Electrolytes regulate fluid and blood volume, support nerve function, maintain normal heart rhythm, and play many other critical roles in your health. 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. They may feel driven to do whatever they can to keep getting high, including taking risks.

For centuries, people there have chewed the leaves for their mild stimulant effect. In those regions, chewing khat is often a social activity, similar to coffee drinking in other societies. In addition, drug makers can easily skirt the ban on MDPV and mephedrone by turning to other cathinone derivatives, of which there are many. “The game with this stuff is that the labs that make it change the ingredients, the packaging, the name, and the color to create confusion so it can’t be controlled,” says Ryan. Bath salts can be ingested orally, snorted, smoked, plugged or injected.

They are called bath salts because they are usually packaged as a product “for a soothing bath, not for human consumption.” Before the drugs making up bath salts were illegal, this kept sellers from having the drugs confiscated. Sellers were usually convenience stores, head shops and similar businesses. Bath salts are a category of man-made drugs with stimulant-like effects that includes a number of chemical compounds in synthetic cathinones.