UMEM Educational Pearls

Category: Toxicology

Title: Bath Salts

Keywords: mephedrone, bath salts (PubMed Search)

Posted: 2/24/2011 by Fermin Barrueto, MD (Updated: 3/29/2024)
Click here to contact Fermin Barrueto, MD

Continuing with the synthetic/designer drug theme. Last time we were discussing synthetic marijuana.  Another old drug making a resurgence under the designer drug category is mephedrone.This amphetamine-like drug has been purportedly the active substance in "bath salts". It has also been sold as "plant food" - still trying to figure that one out.

Sold in head shops under the name Bliss or Cloud 9 - they have been reported to be available in Baltimore, MD recently. They can also be bought over the internet. Crushed, snorted or ingested, the effect is similiar to cocaine with a largely sympathomimetic toxidrome. Mephedrone has been labeled an entactogen with users behaving similiar to an MDMA ingestion. A Baltimore news station incorrectly called it "synthetic cocaine" - though the effect may be similiar, completely different molecular structure.

Treatment is cooling, check lytes (especially sodium), check for rhabdomyolysis and sedation with benzodiazepines. Below is one link from a Denver News Station. Attached is a picture of a bath salt product.

The latest and greatest on the street - synthetic marijuana and bath salts!

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/26567376/detail.html


Attachments

1102241706_bath-salts.jpg (38 Kb)