Bath Salts. Sounds soothing and relaxing doesn’t it.  Add some to the bathwater and relax and float away.  Well, that all depends upon which type of bath salts you are talking about.  Choose the wrong kind of bath salts and you may want to chew somebody’s face off.

A man in Florida recently was shot and killed by police after he attacked a homeless man and allegedly ate eighty percent of the homeless man’s face off.  He was believed to be under the influence of bath salts when he committed this crime. Bath salts are not exactly to be used in the tub.  They are a cheap form of speed.  It is a synthetic mixture of some dangerous chemicals, three of which have been recently banned by the U.S. Drug enforcement Agency.  These are mephedrone, MDPV and methylone.  People who use these bath salts tend to become paranoid and dangerously violent.

The bath salts stimulate the central nervous system and have a similar effect as cocaine and methamphetamine. The bath salts increase the levels of dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain to dangerous levels that can be up to 10 times the intensity as cocaine leading to panic attacks, hallucinations, paranoia and violent behavior.  Those under the influence have been known to posses increased body temperature and extreme physical strength.  Some equate this behavior to the individual being in a zombie-like state.  There is no way to conduct a drug test on these bath salts but the erratic behavior that the users exhibit leave little doubt as to what substances were ingested.