Bath Salts: It's Not A Fad...It's A Nightmare

Navy Medicine psychiatry resident Lt. George Loeffler at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, CA, discusses his firsthand experiences treating service members at Navy military treatment facilities from consequences of bath salt use.

"I would say not just as the naval officer, but as your doctor, bath salts will not only jack up your family and your career, it will jack up your mind and body too," said Loeffler in this PSA.

The Bath Salts campaign's slogan, "Bath salts: It's not a fad...It's a NIGHTMARE", reflects the hallucinogenic effect of bath salts, which are a non-regulated designer drug comprised of a synthetic cathinone, or amphetamine, that can have a dangerous or debilitating effect on the user.

Nothing To Smile About

Like I discussed a while back, it's going to be an extremely difficult task trying to stop the scourge of synthetic drug abuse. Now there's a new one in the news.. smiles.

[original video link removed by source]

The Designer Drug Conundrum

Yesterday, while at the dentist's office, I was reading a "dated" Time magazine and came across a blurb that said Katy Perry's, Teenage Dream album has recently tied with Michael Jackson's album, Bad, for the most #1 hits from a single album.

I mention this only because it made me realize my age, and just how much I may be out of touch with the youth of America. I had no idea who Katy Perry was and have never listened to any of her music. So, it probably goes without saying that I'm probably also out of touch with both the type and scope of designer drugs being abused by our young people today. I can't understand why they would so easily assume the risks associated with abusing these untested drugs?

Regardless of my ignorance, it seems to me that the abuse of designer drugs will probably be the next public health crisis involving young Americans.

I mean, how can the abuse be stopped when the demand for a legal high remains unchanged, and when it's so easy to change the chemical structure of a banned designer drug into a different (but similar) chemical with the same potential for abuse? It seems to me that the criminals can create different designer drugs faster than the medical system can show they cause harm and the legal system eventually ban them.

I just recently read where a purer and more potent form of ecstasy called "Molly" has been created, which has the potential for even greater long-term health damage when abused. Even "bath salts", the current rage in all of the party scenes, are being redesigned to be ten times more potent than the original versions.

Where does it all end? What's it going to take stop the continuous supply and demand for designer drugs? Is it time to just legalize all drugs and let the chips fall where they may? What do you think?

Source: ABC News Channel-15

Calgon, Take Me Away

The American Medical Association (AMA) has recently called for federal legislation against synthetic substances, like those found in bath salts (pdf), that can cause psychotic hallucinations and even death. Bath salts are abused as recreational drugs typically by injection, smoking, and snorting, and the AMA wants sales to stop before anyone else dies.

But, should the government be banning every drug that has the potential for abuse? Will that stop the seemly growing problem of drug abuse? Should the healthcare profession be held responsible for the people who abuse drugs? I have ambivalent feelings about this topic.

Of course, I'd like for people to quit abusing drugs and destroying their health, to stop getting foolishly sucked into the vicious cycle of addiction, and then committing crimes to enable and perpetuate that addiction. I'm also for preventing drug abuse in children and teens who aren't capable of making adult decisions.

But, I also believe we can't control all of the choices adults make, and at some point, they must eventually be held responsible for their own actions. Parents should also be the ones held responsible for educating and supervising their children about drug abuse, not government, not teachers, and not the healthcare industry. We can help in prevention and treatment, but we shouldn't be the ones considered responsible for their actions.

As history has also consistently proven, the world will never run out of unethical people and criminals seeking to exploit anyone in order to line their own pockets.

Here's the problem I see with designer drugs - Always on the hunt for ways to skirt laws, makers of these designer drugs try to stay one step ahead of laws and law enforcement. By the time laws are written against the production of such drugs, the perpetrators have switched the formulation and morphed their synthetic drugs into something new.

How can you put a stop to that? Escalate the war on drugs? Harshly allow nature to take its course?

What do you think about this topic? What's your opinion about synthetic drug abuse? Can it be stopped, and who should be held responsible for fixing the problem?