From
philly.com:
A Northeast Pennsylvania couple almost slash their 5-year-old daughter with knives as they attack "voices in the walls." A man caught burglarizing an upstate house tells police he was "chased by electricity." And two men die of exposure in Allegheny National Forest.
Those episodes - all in the last two weeks - are being attributed by authorities to a new and potentially lethal designer drug known as "
bath salts."
And it's legal.
Use of the powerful party drug, first popularized in European clubs, has swept across the nation, alarming police, physicians, and parents and galvanizing legislators in Pennsylvania and other states to take action.
The drug methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV), a stimulant that can produce hallucinations, is marketed in small packets under names such as "Vanilla Sky" and "Ivory Wave." Multicolored wrappers promise "euphoria" and "invigoration."
But you don't soak in these bath salts. Users ingest, inject, snort, or smoke the product sold in powder or rock form that resemble the sodium-based crystals used for centuries to soothe aching muscles in the tub.
The "salts" can deliver a paranoia-filled, violent high that has landed some users - typically teenagers and young adults - in emergency rooms and sent loved ones scrambling to call poison hotlines.