The use of designer drugs resulting in a bath salts high has reached epidemic proportions.  This drug sometimes sold as bath salts creates havoc amongst its users.
The active chemical is a stimulant. Although bath salts are chemically separate from ectasy, cocaine or amphetamines, they have a similar physiological effect on the brain, and are quite addictive. Once the bath salts high is experienced, the cycle of addiction
may have begun.
Because these drugs are so easily obtained, parents must be vigilant in informing and warning their children about the effects of these substances, which can lead to permanent
physical and mental damage. Some users have even ended up permanently
institutionalized after ingesting them.
They go by several different names. Sextasy, Scarface, White Rush, Ocean Snow, White Lightning, Hurricane Charlie, Red Dove and others. They all create a bath salts
high.
These drugs are mostly created overseas. Thus far, chemists who manufacture “bath salts” have been savvy enough to alter the chemical compound in order to escape US drug laws.
However, an entire range of these designer drugs is now the subject of a federal bill. Lawmakers are working to close the loopholes that allow their continuous alteration and
production.
This law would outlaw synthetic marijuana, along with the main stimulants in the designer drugs. This bill passed the Senate and has been sent to the House for negotiation.
What makes these “bath salts” so dangerous? Their physical and mental side effects are appalling.
Here is a partial list of side effects resulting from a bath salts high:

• Raising heart rate
  and blood pressure enough to cause a heart attack
• Renal
  failure
• Kidney
  failure
• Respiratory
  failure
• Psychosis
• Hallucination
• Delusion
• Paranoia
• Agitation
• Aggression
• Suicidal
  thoughts
• Death

The bath salts are said to be so addictive that even after release from the emergency
room users have immediately gotten high again.
The use of these dangerous drugs is on the increase. Just two years ago, in 2010, poison
control centers in the US had 302 calls about bath salts. But by May of 2011,
they already had well over two thousand calls. This was eight times as many
calls as they had in 2010.
A study done in Michigan discovered that men and women are equal abusers of this drug.
The age range discovered was from 20 years old all the way to 55, with the
average age of use being 28. And 70% of the users were former drug users. Nearly
half of the abusers were previously diagnosed with a mental disorder such as
bipolar, depression or schizophrenia.
Hence the possible psychiatric connection to this epidemic. After all, how are those
diagnosed with mental disorders “treated?” Most often with antipsychotics and
antidepressants.
If a young person has grown up the victim of psychiatric drugging, the pathway has been
laid for a possible life of drug abuse, including that of designer drugs.The
psychiatric connection to bath salts use doesn’t end there. Those who end up in
emergency rooms are often ushered into the psych ward for treatment.
Antipsychotics seem to be the drug of choice in this case.
The solution to this problem of bath salts abuse isn’t just federal regulation, but
communication within the family early on. Childhood mental disturbances can be
solved through nutrition, communication and understanding, not psychiatric
drugging.
A bath salts high, which can lead to permanent disability or institutionalization, is a
real danger.
When the recognition that psychiatric drugs are not the solution to life’s difficulties,
then those who would abuse this weakness by creating designer drugs for older
children and young adults will be looking for honest jobs or serving prison
sentences.
http://health.msn.com/health-topics/addiction/bath-salts-%E2%80%94-a-new-way-to-get-high
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2012/06/06/lawmakers-moving-to-close-legal-loopholes-on-bath-salts/