What’s the story behind the name?
Mark Ryan, Louisiana Poison Center:
There’s really no connection. Names like this helped the people who manufacture and sell these drugs get them into stores and around the federal law. In addition to bath salt, we’ve seen names like stain remover, window cleaner, toilet bowl cleaner, and plant growth stimulator — all names meant to make it look like they are not intended for human use. But the people who are using them know exactly what they’re for.
And for the record:
The powder-like drug creates an extreme high which is often accompanied by intense side effects including higher blood pressure, agitation, hallucinations, extreme paranoia and delusions.
(Photo by the Drug Enforcement Administration)
On average, one baby is born in the United States each hour addicted to opiates — a class of drugs ranging from heroin to prescription painkillers.
Legalizing Drugs: Why Some Latin American Leaders Are OK With It
“Basically, most Latin American leaders today say that the war on drugs — the hard-line approach where you go after the narcos and try to wipe out the coca bushes — isn’t really working, and they want to look for another way,” said John Otis, GlobalPost’s reporter in Bogota, Colombia.
“Ten years ago, it would have been almost blasphemous to go against U.S. policy and say ‘no, I want to take a softer approach toward drugs’,” he said. “But now almost every president in the region is saying ‘this isn’t working’” and they need to try something else.”
(Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)
(Marijuana plants sit on a rack at the Berkeley Patients Group March 25, 2010 in Berkeley, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images))
Not the bubble kind.
The DEA has issued a temporary ban on U.S. sales of street drugs known as “bath salts.”
Its spread has been rapid. In 2010, poison centers throughout the nation reported 303 calls from people who had ingested or inhaled the substance. In the first nine months of this year, that number jumped to 5,226.
