NORWICH – With reports of “bath salts” abuse on the rise across the nation – including stories of cannibalistic and extremely violent and unpredictable behavior – the Norwich City Police Department is taking a proactive approach to combat any potential incidents involving the designer drug, which first began making headlines in 2010.
On July 12, the Norwich PD will host a two-hour seminar on what many are calling a growing epidemic across the country, joined by other local law enforcement agencies, mental health care providers and drug and alcohol specialists.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse, in 2011, called baths salts “the latest addition to a growing list of items that young people can obtain to get high” and noted the designer drug has “already been linked to an alarming number of ER visits across the country.”
Bath salts, according to the NIDA website, drugabuse.gov, can be inhaled, ingested, snorted or injected. They are packaged and sold under names such as Aura, Bliss, Bloom, Cloud 9, Ivory Wave and Monkey Dust – to name just a few – and are typically found at gas stations, smoke shops, head shops and other places where drug paraphernalia and tobacco products can be purchased.
On Monday, President Barack Obama signed into federal law a ban on the sale of bath salts, synthetic marijuana and other synthetic drugs, according to a press release issued by the office of U.S. Senator Charles Schumer.
Onondaga County’s official website, ongov.net, described bath salts as toxic, synthetic drugs “being used as recreational designer drugs” and they should not be confused with traditional, cosmetic bath salts. They typically contain the stimulants methylendedioxpyrovalerone (MPDV) and mephedrone
(methylmethcathinone), are not controlled by the DEA, and are not approved for human consumption by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
And while there have been no official reports of bath salts abuse locally, Norwich Police Chief Joseph Angelino said its possible the city’s police and fire departments “may have dealt with individuals who may have been under the influence of these substances.”
Officer Reuben Roach concurred and said bath salts appear to be moving into the Central New York area at an increasingly high rate, with dozens of arrests believed to involve the designer drugs in the Utica area in 2012 alone. Those who consume the banned substance, he added, create a “dangerous situation” for both the community and law enforcement.
Said Roach, “It’s terrible stuff.”
Incidents involving the dangerous stimulants have been on the rise nationwide since 2010.
• June, 2011, 10 people in Manhattan and Brooklyn are charged with the distribution and sale of bath salts. The DEA’s Bath Salts Task Force seizes approximately $2 million worth of the designer drug.
• April, 2012, eight Pennsylvania men are charged with the alleged unlawful distribution of controlled substances, use of a communication facility to carry out that offense, criminal conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and distributing and conspiring to distribute misbranded drugs when $6 million worth of the designer drug was seized, according to the FDA.
• June, 2012, a Madison County woman suspected of consuming bath salts is found growling while she strangled her 3-year-old son, chased neighbors in the nude and tried to bite the face of a police officer. She dies soon after, apparently of cardiac arrest. Authorities report that pepper spray and a Taser had no effect on the woman, according to the Utica Observer-Dispatch.
• June, 2012, police seize more than 200 packages of bath salts from a Herkimer head shop, charging its clerk with possession of a synthetic substance.
• July, 2012, a Pennsylvania mother allegedly smokes bath salts in a maternity ward just days after giving birth and attacks nurses and law enforcement, trying to bite an officer’s face, according to the New York Daily News.
“President Obama’s swift approval of this federal ban is the final nail in the coffin for the legal sale of bath salts in smoke shops and convenient stores in New York State and throughout the rest of the country,” stated Schumer. “This law will close loopholes that have allowed manufacturers to circumvent local and state bans and ensure that you cannot simply cross state lines to find these deadly bath salts, and I’m pleased that after a great deal of effort, it has become law. We have seen bath salts catalyze some of the most heinous crimes in recent months across Upstate New York, and the President’s signature ensures that the federal government can fight this scourge with a united front, across state lines and at our borders.”
The legislation will make bath salts illegal countrywide by adding MDPV and mephedrone to Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, which classifies drugs that are illegal and cannot be prescribed under any circumstances. In addition to MDPV and mephedrone, there are 29 other substances that Schumer’s bill bans, according to the press release.