Bath salts have become the most talked about illegal drug of 2012, after Miami resident Rudy Eugene, who was believed to be high on the drug, chewed off the face of a homeless drifter – forever being dubbed the Miami Cannibal.
STORY: Not Again! Miami Man On Bath Salts Tries To Bite Police
Today, doctors have revealed that MDPV, commonly found in the street drug bath salts, is ten times stronger than cocaine, and causes users to become paranoid, violent and agitated, at times leading to hallucinations.
According to the National Science Foundation, unlike with other drugs, such as cocaine or ecstasy, doctors are noticing a worrying trend of people suffering these symptoms for days after snorting the legal high.
Louisiana Poison Control Center Director Dr. Mark Ryan told ABC News:
“They’re selling time bombs…We’ve had some people show up who are complaining of chest pains so severe that they think they’re having a heart attack. They think they’re dying.”
One victim of the cocaine-like bath salts was 21-year-old Dickie Sanders.
According to ABC News:
Sanders suffered severe hallucinations after snorting a packet of bath salts, labelled ‘Cloud Nine’, became convince he was being hunted by police and sliced at his throat with a kitchen knife.
Saunders survived his horrific injuries, returning home with stitches and telling his mother: ‘I can’t handle what this drug has done to me. I’m never going to touch anything again.’
The side effects persisted, Saunders’ father ended up having to sleep beside him, holding his son in his arms and trying to comfort him.
He eventually calmed and drifted off to sleep.
But hours later, suddenly and without warning, Saunders left the protective arms of his father and in the midst of another psychotic episode shot himself with a rifle.
We have to keep these drugs out of the hands of young people. They are destroying lives and families.
SOURCE: ABC News
Above: Dickie Sanders, pictured here on left with his father Rick and sister Jaymi, took his own life in November 2010 days after ingesting bath salts. (Courtesy of the Sanders Family)
