Defining Bath Salts

What Are Bath Salts?

Bath salts is the street name of a stimulant. The name is taken from where the drug is found: frequently on fertilizers and household items, like bath salts. The chemicals in these household products may cause hallucinations and other psychoactive effects in a person that tries to consume bath salts from ingesting or inhaling the drug.

What is in Bath Salts?

Bath salts have a chemical compound in them called MDVP. This chemical has been used by humans for a very short time and causes several different effects if taken by an user, either through snorting or consuming. Some users choose to intravenously consume bath salts. Bath salts have many pleasurable effects and were not illegal until recently, which ensured that many people were able to get these household products over the counter and use them as recreational drugs.

What is the effect of Bath Salts?

The user might experience euphoria, increased drive, increased creativity, increased empathy and other pleasurable feelings. The user may also experience involuntary body movements like twitching, greatly increased heart rate and changes in blood pressure which may cause users to go into cardiac arrest. Prolonged, long-term use and high dosages can cause hallucinations, paranoia, depression, anxiety and chest pain, along with thoughts of suicide.

Due to the nature of bath salts as a new drug, doctors and medical centers will not be able to find it in an user's system. They must be specifically told if an user has consumed bath salts.

Are Bath Salts Addictive?

Although bath salts are a relatively new drug that has not been used by humans for a long time, they are mostly considered to be a high risk drug when it comes to addiction. Like other amphetamines, MDVP produces dopamine in the brain, which causes it to stop producing as much itself. This means that when the user is not taking the drug, he or she will feel generally unhappy and unwell. Despite the fact that not much is known about physical addiction to bath salts, this drug can be highly addictive psychologically like many other amphetamines which increase the dopamine production in your brain.

How Safe Is It To Take Bath Salts?

Bath salts are not meant for human consumption. Any product which might have had MDVP in it is usually labeled as such. The user does not know any of the other chemicals that might be in the bath salts that he or she is consuming and scientists do not yet know how MDVP reacts in the body when mixed with other drugs. Additionally, scientists are not sure about how MDVP is metabolized in the body.

A high intake on bath salts may cause psychosis, hallucinations, paranoia and depression. However, no dosage is recommended and the user is not able to see how much he or she should use, which makes the user much more likely to ingest a lot of bath salts. This, in turn, can cause a plethora of effects that can devastate the user, psychologically, physically, professionally. The user may incur a criminal record if he or she is caught with MDVP, now a Schedule 1 drug in the United States.