Are your "Bath Salts" legal?

The headline screams, "Tell Your Children Fake Bath Salts Cause Death". In this industry, we are particularly concerned about these "fake" bath salts and how they affect the public view regarding cosmetics companies. On January 10th, we linked the above article from BlogHer to our Facebook Page. Two weeks later, the media is inundated with sensationalized stories implying that people are buying sea salt and snorting or injecting it.

Here are the facts:

• "Fake Bath Salts" is an advertising term. Its nicknames include Super Coke, Cloud 9, Ivory Wave, Boss, White Lightning, Bliss, Hurricane Charlie, Plant Food, Synthetic Cocaine, Fake Cocaine, Fake Meth, Potpourri.
• "Fake Bath Salts" does not, in any way, refer to any salt used for legitimate bathing purposes.
• Actual contents of "Fake Bath Salt" packets may be any of the following (legal at the time of this post) toxic chemical compounds: 3,4-Methylenedioxymethcathinone, 3,4-Methyenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV), 4-Methylmethcathinone, 4-methoxymethcathinone, 4-Fluoromethcathinone, 3-Fluoromethcathinone, mephedrone.

Law enforcement officers confirm that these compounds are currently legal but can produce violence, delirium, paranoia, hallucinations, and other dangerous psychotic effects. Medical professionals say it can also produce extreme sweating, rapid heart rates, unexplained strength and endurance, severe agitation, suicidal thoughts and cardiovascular collapse.

The sudden outbreak of "bath salt" abuse may be attributed to the restriction on the sale of cold medicine. With addicts unable to mix methamphetamine from pseudoephedrine, they've turned to increasingly volatile sources for their high.

If you see articles or posts online sensationalizing "Bath Salts" as a way to get "high" please refer people to the facts regarding these compounds which are not salt and not intended for bathing. Negative connotations regarding completely safe products like Dead Sea Salt, Sea Salt, Luxury Bath Salt and other salts used for bathing purposes affect our industry and everyone who sells or uses these products. It is unfortunate that entrepreneurial drug dealers have chosen to knockoff a safe and legal product like sea salt in an effort to pull the wool over the eyes of law enforcement. However, the jig is up! Mississippi, Kentucky, and Louisiana all have proposals in the works to get the substances off of store shelves.

As of January 20, 2011, the Associated Press reports that the Senate Drug Policy Committee has passed a bill to outlaw fake bath salts and other products, containing the toxic chemicals addicts are using to get high. (The Associated Press reports this bill as Senate Bill 2226, although we have been unable to locate any such legislation).

Allison B. Kontur

www.BathBodySupply.com

Resources:

1. Ivory Wave: Worse Than Cocaine and Legal?
2. Bath Salt Chemical Causes Hallucinations 
3. Senate panel OKs bill banning fake bath salts
4. Area Sheriff’s Asking Retailers not to Sell Bath Salts
5. Louisiana Outlaws “Fake Bath Salts”; Real Bath Salts Still Available at New Orleans Bath & Body Works 
6. Warnings Issued About 'Fake Cocaine' Bath Salts
7. Fake bath salts: The latest drug high to be banned  
8. Drug Alert: Fancy Bath Salts Might be the New Meth
9. MDPV Report: Psychonaut Web Mapping Research Project (pdf) 
10. Dangerous, But Legal “Bath Salts” Are Like Cocaine and Methamphetamine
11. 'Bath Salts' A Growing Drug Problem, Officials Say