"bath salts" aka Mephedrone psychosis

[393656]

How many of you in various parts of the country are seeing people getting high on these "bath salts" For those who do not know they are typically salts of mephedrone or derivitives of mephedrone which is a designer drug that is related to exctasy. Ultimately they are all derivitatives of the khat plant. These are marketed as "bath salts" -like bubbly bath type of salts on the package in order to avoid any problem with the FDA or other laws since it is labeled as "not for human consumption"

This is rampant in the mid-west and the really interesting thing is it shows up as PCP in the drug tests.

The cool thing is it presents very similarly to a mix of PCP and amphetamine's. Very hyper, very wild, thrashing of their body and limbs badly and the psychosis causes reallllly wacky visual probs and out of body experiences. They also are extremely agitated and wild a la PCP.

Mephedrone is strongly serotergic like exctasy but also dopamine and NE.

Anyway this is legal to buy at any tobbacco shop or smoke shop. Along with synthetic THC in form of K2 etc.

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[OldPsychDoc]

How many of you in various parts of the country are seeing people getting high on these "bath salts" For those who do not know they are typically salts of mephedrone or derivitives of mephedrone which is a designer drug that is related to exctasy. Ultimately they are all derivitatives of the khat plant. These are marketed as "bath salts" -like bubbly bath type of salts on the package in order to avoid any problem with the FDA or other laws since it is labeled as "not for human consumption"

This is rampant in the mid-west and the really interesting thing is it shows up as PCP in the drug tests.

The cool thing is it presents very similarly to a mix of PCP and amphetamine's. Very hyper, very wild, thrashing of their body and limbs badly and the psychosis causes reallllly wacky visual probs and out of body experiences. They also are extremely agitated and wild a la PCP.

Mephedrone is strongly serotergic like exctasy but also dopamine and NE.

Anyway this is legal to buy at any tobbacco shop or smoke shop. Along with synthetic THC in form of K2 etc.

You mean "legal for now". Many states are "banning" synthetic THC variants, and mephedrone/"bath salt" is soon to follow. Of course, something new will come along, and we'll continue playing catch-up.

But yes--I've seen some pretty spectacular drug-induced psychoses, dissociative states, and a couple of ICU admissions (arrhythmias) from this stuff.

 

[Enkidu]

For those who do not know they are typically salts of mephedrone or derivitives of mephedrone which is a designer drug that is related to exctasy. Ultimately they are all derivitatives of the khat plant.

Really? I used to live in Yemen and chew that Qat plant all the time. As far as I could tell it had no intoxicating effects at all. It was a little like caffeine. Actually I didn't enjoy it very much but chewing it was kind of a social expectation over there. I'm amazed that it has been made into an actual hallucinogenic drug.

 

[loveoforganic]

Really? I used to live in Yemen and chew that Qat plant all the time. As far as I could tell it had no intoxicating effects at all. It was a little like caffeine. Actually I didn't enjoy it very much but chewing it was kind of a social expectation over there. I'm amazed that it has been made into an actual hallucinogenic drug.

Physical labor workers chew cocaine leaves for the "caffeine-like" boost too. Not the same effects. Bath salts seem to eff people up about as badly as meth from what I've ready.

 

[393656]

It is derived from khat but these are designer drugs meaning modified chemically into unique compounds so its not exactly the same. The khat you were chewing is more like amphetamine than caffeine so you were just on speed and you did not know it. Yemen sounds cool!

The treatment dillemma in these people is managing their extreme agitation and psychosis in the context of them thrashing around so hard and causing muscle damage and increase CK/risk of rhabdo, fever and thermoregulartory problems like pcp and the risk with anti-psychotics of inducing a malignant catatonia reaction. I fine balance of ativan and risperdal is what I have been using. I had tried haldol and valium/ativan but with its 5ht2 blockade I have chosen risperdal given mephedrone's sertonin toxicity being responsible for some non-reversible damage a la exctasy.

Tricky stuff. Lots of IV fluids too and had to use dantrolene in one case a guy was in rhabdo.

 

[loveoforganic]

They had a discussion on this stuff in the critical care forum not too long back if you feel the desire to search for it

 

[393656]

They had a discussion on this stuff in the critical care forum not too long back if you feel the desire to search for it

Cool thanks. I do think its important for psychiatrists who evalute ED or consults or even inpatient to see this and know that its lighting up PCP on drug screens. At first I thought the couple guys I had were using both salts and PCP given the drug screen but quickly realized it is lighting up pcp.

Surprisingly nobody has written anything about this in form of a case or anything. I am too lazy but have had a ton of these. Anyway atleast be aware of its symptoms, severe toxicity and positive pcp on screen.

 

[Ibid]

Of course, something new will come along, and we'll continue playing catch-up.

End the war on drugs and enter a political process....

MP: ‘You can’t compare harms from a legal activity
with an illegal one.’
Professor Nutt: ‘Why not?’
MP: ‘Because one’s illegal.’
Professor Nutt: ‘Why is it illegal?’
MP: ‘Because it’s harmful.’
Professor Nutt: ‘Don’t we need to compare harms to
determine if it should be illegal?’
MP: ‘You can’t compare harms from a legal activity
with an illegal one.’​

repeats …

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/oct/30/drugs-adviser-david-nutt-sacked

(known as the Proff. Nutt Sack incident from now till the end of history)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/6209820/Ministers-are-irresponsible-say-family-of-legal-high-drug-victim-21.html

 

[Majesty]

I thought there was a discussion on these here.
Maybe it was Sermo.

Anyways, I have seen several kids on this stuff as it is still legal in california. Meth/LSD high. There is a lot of experiences detailed on erowid.

http://www.erowid.org/experiences/subs/exp_MDPV.shtml

I have come across hypomanic/manic like states as well as delusional/paranoia all the way to agitated psychosis. People will also mix this with other drugs, especially meth to make the meth experience 'better.' This is a very dangerous drug but it seems like the designer drug movement needs to be regulated, you cant just regulate individual drugs. Unfortunately they don't sell this crap for oral cnosumption so it gets tricky.

 

[393656]

what a farse huh? "not for oral consumption" Since when is LSD or pot for oral consumption? I dont get why they cannot do a better job regulating this fertilizer like **** that gets passed out as the newest drugs. It is such a dirty drug with absolutely no standards for what things are mixed in, it is much more dangerous IMO than any other "street drug".

The high and agitation/psychosis lasts a lot longer too if anyone has noticed

 

[IAmAUser]

.

 

[Manicsleep]

what a farse huh? "not for oral consumption" Since when is LSD or pot for oral consumption? I dont get why they cannot do a better job regulating this fertilizer like **** that gets passed out as the newest drugs. It is such a dirty drug with absolutely no standards for what things are mixed in, it is much more dangerous IMO than any other "street drug".

The high and agitation/psychosis lasts a lot longer too if anyone has noticed

How else is LSD used? Also, there are plenty of people who openly sell cannabis for oral consumption in those screwy medical marijuana shops.