TAMPA --
They come with names such as Vanilla Sky, Ivory Wave and Ocean Burst.

They're called bath salts, but they provide anything but relaxation.

Some people who have used them reported seeing aliens.

One man who snorted the stuff holed up in an attic with a gun and said he was trying to kill the monsters before they killed his family.

In Louisiana and Missouri, young men put guns to their heads and killed themselves.

Poison control centers across the country, especially in Florida and the Southeast, are taking telephone calls from people who are experiencing dangerous reactions to the product available online or at convenience stores and specialty smoke shops. The stimulant causes a cocaine-like reaction in many users, who generally range from 16 to 30 years old.

Cynthia Lewis-Younger, medical director of the Florida Poison Information Center in Tampa, said there have been 41 calls about bath salt exposures since August. Five were from Pinellas, four from Pasco and two from Hillsborough.

"That's just the tip of the iceberg," she said. "There are a lot more exposures out there. I don't think it's safe to be out there on the street."

Florida's attorney general, Pam Bondi, agrees. On Wednesday afternoon, she announced an emergency rule banning bath salts.

"Due to the violent nature of the side-effects in taking these drugs, the emergency rule will provide law enforcement with the tools necessary to take this dangerous substance off the shelves and protect the abusers from themselves as well as others," Bondi said. "These are dangerous drugs that should not be confused with any type of common bath product."

That's hogwash, says Randy Heine, owner of Rockin Cards and Gifts in Pinellas Park, which sells the powdery stuff to anyone over the age of 21.

"You have one person who is going to tell a whole industry that they have to stop selling a product," Heine said. "When I woke up this morning, I woke up in America. I thought we had due process here.

"I would bet that Pam Bondi has no basis to back this up," he added. "Did anyone die off the product? Did anyone get hurt? It's up to her to prove that. I want to see the proof."

Officials say the proof is in the statistics and in emergency rooms across the country.

In 2010, there were 234 phone calls to 57 poison control centers nationwide, said Jessica Wehrman of the American Association of Poison Control Centers. In the first three weeks of 2011, there already have been 134 such calls.

"We're seeing it everywhere," Wehrman said.

Nowhere has it been more prevalent than Louisiana, where officials there also moved to ban the substance after being inundated with problems. Florida ranks No. 2 behind Louisiana.

The first call to poison control officials was Sept. 29, said Mark Ryan, director of Louisiana's poison control center. Then they would get a call or two a day for a while.

"It was almost like the floodgates started to open," he said.

There were nine calls alone on Christmas. Another 12 came on New Year's Day.

The youngest patient there was 14. The oldest was 64.

"We are seeing bizarre symptoms in some of the patients," Ryan said. "Their heart rate and blood pressure are elevated. They are extremely anxious. Some of them are almost in panic attacks.

"Some of them are hallucinating," he added. "They describe monsters, demons, aliens. They think people they know are trying to harm them."

Some users exhibit violent behavior. Police officers are encountering people packing guns and threatening to do harm to themselves or others after having snorted, smoked or swallowed the powder.

"It's scary stuff," Ryan said.


Heine just started to stock the product within the last 90 days, selling it for about $20 for two capsules.

He plans to keep selling the bath salts until told otherwise, saying he has 30 days to keep doing so. Officials in the attorney general's office said Wednesday, however, the ban went into effect immediately for the next 90 days. Bondi's hope is that the Florida Legislature will enact a permanent ban.

State officials in Mississippi and Kentucky are exploring the same thing.

That doesn't sit well with Heine.

"Maybe they feel obligated to stop everyone from doing anything that makes them feel good," Heine said. "People can get high off of nutmeg. People can get high off of paint. Why aren't they banning those?''

http://beta2.tbo.com/news/news/2011/jan/27/bath-salts-the-hot-new-hallucinogen-ar-11936/

Thank God they have banned this stuff and the K2 and Spice. Thses are some dangrous items............

Also this Randy Heini sounds like a complete moron. Hell, just look at his quotes...........

"Heine, who plans a court challenge to the rule, says that is not the case at all. And he says it is nobody's business what people do with the bath salts, which say on the label they are not designed for human consumption.

"I don't know and I don't care," he said recently."

I also read where he is now making his own type Special Blend even though those are still illegal.

They need to make ALL of them illegal in all the states, where local law enforcement can arrest these people and prosecute, not just federally. Spice, K2, Bliss, Bath Salts etc. They are ALL dangerous and deadly with deaths from the chemical or suicide while FUBARED.

Hell, just look at the side effects.........

Physiological effectstachycardia (Rapid heartbeat)
hypertension (High blood pressure)
vasoconstriction (Narrowing of the blood vessels)
insomnia
nausea, stomach cramps, and digestive problems
bruxism (Grinding teeth)
increased body temperature, chills, sweating
pupil dilation
headache
kidney pain
tinnitus
dizziness
overstimulation
breathing difficulty
agitation/hypertonia


Oh yea, look at the Florida Attorney General whos leading this fight, shes gorgeous...........

http://beta2.tbo.com/news/news/2011/jan/27/bath-salts-the-hot-new-hallucinogen-ar-11936/

A new designer drug known as “bath salts” has become increasingly popular and increasingly scary. Poison centers across the U.S. have reported growing numbers of calls about the synthetic stimulant, and more and more states are banning the drug. But as of now, there is no federal law prohibiting their sale.

Make no mistake: These are not bath salts like those you would use in your bath.

WebMD talked to Zane Horowitz, MD, an emergency room physician and medical director of the Oregon Poison Center, about what they are and why you should avoid them.



First of all, what are bath salts?
"The presumption is that most bath salts are MDPV, or methylenedioxypyrovalerone, although newer pyrovalerone derivatives are being made by illegal street chemists. Nobody really knows, because there is no way to test for these substances," Horowitz says.

Why are they called bath salts?
"It’s confusing. Is this what we put in our bathtubs, like Epsom salts? No. But by marketing them as bath salts and labeling them 'not for human consumption,' they have been able to avoid them being specifically enumerated as illegal," Horowitz says.

Are bath salts illegal?
"You can find them in mini-marts and smoke shops sold as Ivory Wave, Bolivian Bath, and other names," Horowitz says. "The people who make these things have skirted the laws that make these types of things illegal. While several states have banned the sale of bath salts, ultimately it will have to be a federal law that labels these as a schedule 1 drug, which means it has no medicinal value but a high potential for abuse, and declare them illegal."

What do you experience when you take bath salts?
"Agitation, paranoia, hallucinations, chest pain, suicidality. It’s a very scary stimulant that is out there. We get high blood pressure and increased pulse, but there’s something more, something different that’s causing these other extreme effects. But right now, there’s no test to pick up this drug. The only way we know if someone has taken them is if they tell you they have.

The clinical presentation is similar to mephedrone [a chemical found in other designer drugs], with agitation, psychosis, and stimulatory effects. Both of these agents should be of concern, as severe agitated behavior, like an amphetamine overdose, has occurred.

A second concern is the ongoing suicidality in these patients, even after the stimulatory effects of the drugs have worn off. At least for MDPV, there have been a few highly publicized suicides a few days after their use," Horowitz says.

Are bath salts addictive? How are they taken?
"We don’t know if they are addictive. We have not had enough long-term experience with it. Acute toxicity is the main problem. But many stimulants do cause a craving. The people who take them are very creative. They snort it, shoot it, mix it with food and drink," Horowitz says.

Bath salts are the latest example of designer drugs. Where do you see this trend going?
"That’s right. They are part of a long line of other pills and substances that we call designer drugs. And drug makers will keep creating new combinations at home and in illicit labs," Horowitz says. "It’s almost impossible to keep up. And the motivation for buying them is always the same: Drugs like these are new and below the radar, unlike named illegal drugs."

http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/features/bath-salts-drug-dangers

I know the really big this out here in Carson City, Reno, Lake Tahoe, Minden, Dayton, Pahrump and Las Vegas. It's called Robofrying.

Robitussin and MANY over the counter cough and cold medication have an ingredient called Dextromethorphan(It's in almost every over the counter cough and cold products). It gives you a Morphene like high when taken in LARGE doses. I am talking\slamming like taking 3-4-5-6 bbottles of Robitussin or other over the counter itemd.

I have caught a TON of teenagers and middle schoolers attempting to steal this stuff. When I told him it is not a safe medication to get high off and it could kill you or at the very least make you really sick. The kid called me a liar and said it is 100% safe because they sell it over the counter, so it has to be safe.

They need to pass a local and federal law making it a crime to take over the country health products in any other way then listed.

Also maybe make it a Felony if police catch someone getting high off spray paint because they would be using it in a way not protected.

I know the really big this out here in Carson City, Reno, Lake Tahoe, Minden, Dayton, Pahrump and Las Vegas. It's called Robofrying.

Robitussin and MANY over the counter cough and cold medication have an ingredient called Dextromethorphan(It's in almost every over the counter cough and cold products). It gives you a Morphene like high when taken in LARGE doses. I am talking\slamming like taking 3-4-5-6 bbottles of Robitussin or other over the counter itemd.

I have caught a TON of teenagers and middle schoolers attempting to steal this stuff. When I told him it is not a safe medication to get high off and it could kill you or at the very least make you really sick. The kid called me a liar and said it is 100% safe because they sell it over the counter, so it has to be safe.

They need to pass a local and federal law making it a crime to take over the country health products in any other way then listed.

Also maybe make it a Felony if police catch someone getting high off spray paint because they would be using it in a way not protected.

LOL..........oh the trusting minds of youth! Yeah, it's safe in metered doses! Like asprin is safe until you take about 20. Plus, when it comes to OTC drugs, nothing is 100% safe.

I'm all for weeding of the gene pool and population control!

yup, dumb enough to snort something called bath salt...really don't need to be reproducing! People are gonna do drugs whether they are legal or not anyhow.

My whole problem with banning of anything really, is that.....once you start, it creates a very slippery slope, to where they could justify banning just about anything they want. In fact, they already do this as it is, so things like this just add fuel to that fire.

Furthermore, if they care so much about things harmful to us, what about all the garbage in our foods and drinks we consume every single day? It's gotten to where you have to go out of your way anymore to avoid all the crap put into the various processed goods on the market. You wanna ban something? Ban those things first, before you start going after us.

Hell, even bottled water can kill you.

Yep, snort that and see what happens!