YOU’VE SEEN THE VIDEO: Two of these images are from a video PSA the United States Navy made to warn the military community about the dangers of using bath salts. In the video, a Sailor snorts a thick, white line of the drug, vomits and then suffers demonic hallucinations. After attacking his girlfriend on a date, he passes out and eventually lands in the emergency room, where he begins to have seizures. You can see it at: http://www.dodlive.mil/index.php/2013/01/bath-salts-its-not-a-fad-its-a-nightmare/
A situation report (July 2011) by the National Drug Intelligence Center under the United States Department of Justice defined bath salts as an emerging domestic threat.
Traditional bath salts have been sold for years to soften and perfume bathwater, however the designer drug version of bath salts will get you a cold shower in jail if you are caught buying, distributing or ingesting them. Just as with “spice,” there is no tolerance by National Training Center and Fort Irwin command for users of the designer drug bath salts.
Bath salts have been reported to induce effects similar to cocaine, amphetamines, and ecstasy. But the chemicals can also produce negative physical and psychological reactions. According to a fact sheet from the DEA, the chemicals in bath salts have caused hypertension, vasoconstriction and sweating. It’s also been reported to cause intense, prolonged panic attacks.
Chief Warrant Officer 2 Catalina Mosqueda, who heads the Criminal Investigative Division, here, said there was a case on Fort Irwin about a Soldier who had a bad reaction after using bath salts. The Soldier informed his leadership and he was taken to the hospital.
“It was freaking him out,” said Mosqueda.
He had ingested several, small containers worth of bath salts.
Spice and bath salts cases have involved Soldiers or adult Family members, Mosqueda said; it hasn’t been a problem with teens here. She said that Soldiers have bought bath salts in Barstow.
The designer drug has been sold at convenience stores, discount tobacco outlets, gas stations, pawnshops, tattoo parlors, truck stops, night clubs and on the internet. The marketing scheme is similar to that of spice and has names such as Arctic Blast, Mystic, Bayou Ivory Flower, Dynamite, White Dove or Crush.
Don’t use them, or you’ll be the one called crushed.
Getting busted for an offense related to bath salts can end a military career.
“Commanders here have no tolerance for drugs,” said Mosqueda. “Whether they’re … designer drugs or marijuana, cocaine, meth – they have no tolerance for it.”
If a Soldier is busted with bath salts, a case is opened and Uniformed Code of Military Justice offenses could include article 92 and/or 112a convictions.
Article 92 is a failure to obey an order or regulation (NTC policy letters 11 and 13). Article 112a is the wrongful possession, use, distribution, introduction, manufacture, and exportation of controlled substances.
On Oct. 21, 2011, the Drug Enforcement Agency published a final order in the Federal Register exercising its emergency scheduling authority to control three synthetic stimulants that are used to make bath salts, including: Mephedrone, 3,4 methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV) and Methylone. Except as authorized by law, this action makes possessing and selling these chemicals, or the products that contain them, illegal in the United States. This emergency action was necessary to prevent an imminent threat to the public safety. As a result of this order, these synthetic stimulants are designated as Schedule I substances under the Controlled Substances Act. Schedule I status is reserved for those substances with a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted use for treatment in the U.S., and a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug under medical supervision.
