Anyone can find themselves facing a drug charge. It all depends on what the government decides to make illegal. In 2011 the Texas legislature placed a ban on the chemicals found in bath salts, effectively outlawing bath salts for recreational drug use. Last month the DEA outlawed the drug from being sold. Prior to the ban, certain types of these bath salts were available to buy in stores. Many of the chemicals found in bath salts are now Schedule I controlled substances, based on recently enacted Texas law. Schedule I controlled substances come with a real possibility of jail time and are generally charged as a felony – just for first offense possession.
As with any change in the law, law enforcement authorities can overstep their bounds when it comes to those who are accused of drug possession. People still aren’t sure what to do with bath salts. Unlike marijuana possession, bath salts possession is a new concept in criminal law. If you’ve been arrested for possession of bath salts in Houston or anywhere else in Texas, call Houston Lawyer Charles Johnson anytime night or day at (713) 222-7577 or contact us online to discuss your case. Attorney Johnson will do everything in his power to defend you and your rights if you’ve been accused of Bath Salt possession. Your consultation is free and absolutely confidential.
What are “Bath Salts” (aka synthetic cathinones)
“Bath salts” are not for use in the bath, nor do they contain salt. While the formula of this drug changes regularly, most of the now illegal bath salts refer to commercially available products that have as part of their composition a legal stimulant called 3, 4-Methylenedioxypyrovalerone, or MDPV (sometimes another synthetic stimulant called Mephedrone and less commonly a synthetic stimulant called Methylone). These synthetic stimulants are in a class of drug known as synthetic cathinones.
Synthetic cathinones are related to the parent compound cathinone (found naturally in the plant Khat, which has cathinone producing a mild stimlative effect). Since the mid-2000s, unregulated ring-substituted cathinone derivatives have appeared in the European and American recreational drugs market. The most commonly available synthetic cathinones sold on the recreational market in the period up to 2011 appear to be 3, 4-Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV), mephedrone, and methylone. These products are usually encountered as highly pure white or brown powders. Cathinone derivatives are claimed to have effects similar to those of cocaine, amphetamine or MDMA (ecstasy), but little is known of their detailed pharmacology.
Currently illegal in Texas, they are sold mostly on the internet but can also be found in select shops locally. They’re known by a variety of names, including “Red Dove,” “Blue Silk,” “Zoom,” “Bloom,” “Cloud Nine,” “Ocean Snow,” “Lunar Wave,” “Vanilla Sky,” “Ivory Wave,” “White Lightning,” “Scarface” “Purple Wave,” “Blizzard,” “Star Dust,” “Lovey, Dovey,” “Snow Leopard,” “Aura,” and “Hurricane Charlie.” While they have become popular under the guise of selling as “bath salts”, they are sometimes sold as other products such as insect repellant, or the latest iteration of products called jewelry cleaner or IPOD screen cleaners, pump-it-up powder, IPOD cleaner, etc.
Much like the marketing of Synthetic Cannabinoids (Spice/K2) as incense, MDPV has been market as “bath salts” and just like Spice/K2 MDPV is specifically labeled “not for human consumption.”
What are MDPV and Mephedrone?
As stated before, MDPV is a legal stimulant who’s chemical name is 3, 4-Methylenedioxypyrovalerone, and is the active ingredient in “Bath Salts”. A DEA report from December 2010 states that “preliminary testing indicates that the active ingredients in many brands [of bath salts] contain MDPV (3,4-methylenedioxypyrovalerone) and/or mephedrone.” Mephedrone, also known as 4-methylmethcathinone (4-MMC), or 4-methylephedrone, is a synthetic stimulant drug of the amphetamine and cathinone classes. Slang names include “meph,” “drone,” “MCAT,” and “meow, meow.”
Mephedrone is reportedly manufactured in China and is chemically similar to the cathinone compounds found in the khat plant of eastern Africa. It comes in the form of tablets or a powder, which users can swallow, snort or inject, producing similar effects to MDMA, amphetamines and cocaine. Because of the emergent nature of this class of substances, there has been some questioning as to what is in the composition of ‘bath salts’, though most evidence is leaning towards MDPV as being the compound of choice currently in ‘bath salts’.
In the United States, MDPV was packaged as “bath salts” but easy research from the internet showed that “bath salts” such as ‘Ivory Wave’ were being packaged as legal alternative stimulant drugs, and avoid prosecution by putting “Not For Human Consumption” on the packaging. However, some of these can barely contain themselves for what they really are, with one brand having a picture of Al Pacino’s ‘Scarface’ on its packaging.
They are sold over the internet, and on the street, in convenience stores, discount tobacco outlets, gas stations, pawnshops, tattoo parlors, and truck stops, among other locations. The various brands are sold in 50-milligram to 500-milligram packets. Prices range from $25 to $50 per 50-milligram packet.
What are will be in Generation 2 and 3 of Bath Salts?
Generation 2 of Bath Salts have been hitting the internet market already, with the DEA’s temporary ban of MDPV, Mephedrone and Methylone. Naphyrone has been found in samples of what is being labeled online as “Cosmic Blast” a “jewelry cleaner”. There are products (of substances unknown) that are on the internet labeled as “IPOD/Phone Screen Cleaner” and other various covers, as it appears that “bath salts” became too viral of a product name and drug dealers have now moved on to other, more obscure product naming schemes.
Cosmic Blast, marketed as a jewelry cleaner, is a stimulant/hallucinogen that is being marketed in the same way bath salts were. Drug sellers don’t seem to care about US drug law in that samples of Cosmic Blast that have been tested in toxicology laboratories which came up positive for not only Naphyrone, but also MDPV. Naphyrone (which became popular in the UK after their ban of Mephedrone in 2010), is also known as O-2482 and naphthylpyrovalerone, is a drug derived from pyrovalerone that acts as a triple reuptake inhibitor, producing stimulant effects and has been reported as a novel designer drug. No safety or toxicity data is available on the drug). Anecdotal reports of Naphyrone are it can stay in your body for long periods and since it is a reuptake inhibitor of Serotonin, which is implicated in body heat regulation, body temperatures can soar upwards of 107-108 degrees.
Bruce Talbot, a former police officer and expert on emergent drug trends expressed the following concerns regarding MDPV and what could likely happen now that MDPV, Mephedrone and Methylone have become illegal. He suspects that now that MDPV, Mephedrone and Methylone have finally been added to an emergency ban, they will likely “be replaced by 4′-methyl-a-pyrrolidinopropiophenone (MPPP) and 3′,4′-methylenedioxy-a-pyrrolidinopropiophenone (MDPPP).”
What has been seen with K2/Spice is the U.S. government pushing to ban certain of the synthetic cannabinoids (JWH-018, JWH-073, JWH-200, CP 49,479 and CP 49,479 C8, though they are trying a global sweep of this class by banning anything that binds to the CB1 receptors), but the companies making K2/Spice came out with the same product sprayed with chemicals not covered by state or national bans.
The same pattern is possible with the chemicals in “bath salts” (despite the drug using community moving on from the term “bath salts” it has become the name of recognition for this class of syntethic drugs). The following drugs would likely replace MDPV, Mephedrone and Methylone now that these three are banned nationally. These “chemical cousins include: a-pyrrolidinopropiophenone (a-PPP) little is known about this compound, but it has been detected by laboratories in Germany as an ingredient in “ecstasy” tablets seized by law enforcement authorities; 4′-methyl-a-pyrrolidinopropiophenone (MPPP) is a stimulant drug. It is very structurally similar to a-PPP. MPPP was sold in Germany as a designer drug in the late 1990s and early 2000s, although it has never achieved the same international popularity as its better-known relations a-PPP and MDPV; and 3′,4′-methylenedioxy-a-pyrrolidinopropiophenone (MDPPP) which is a stimulant designer drug. It was sold in Germany in the late 1990s and early 2000s as an ingredient in imitation ecstasy (MDMA) pills. It shares a similar chemical structure with a-PPP and MDPV.
MDPV Timeline
MDPV was developed in the 1960s, and has been used for the treatment of chronic fatigue, but caused problems of abuse and dependence.
1969: Boehringer Ingelheim files a patent application for MDPV.
2005: MDPV appears as a recreational drug; first mention on Drugs-Forum.
2007: First seizure of MDPV as a recreational drug, by customs officials in the German state of Saxony. The drug had been shipped from China.
2008: First seizure of MDPV in the United States.
2009: MDPV made illegal in Denmark.
2010: MDPV made a controlled drug in the UK, Sweden, Germany, Australia and Finland. First reports of the widespread retail marketing of ‘bath salts’ containing MDPV in the US. The US considers both Mephedrone (July, 2010) and MDPV (December, 2010) “a drug and chemical of concern”.
2011: MDPV sale and possession are banned in the US states of Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington State (as of November 3, 2011), West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming, with legislation being introduced in many other states. The DEA moved to temporarily ban MDPV, Mephedrone and Methylone on October 21, 2011. This ban will last 12 months with the possibility of an additional 6 month extension while the DEA deatermines whether these 3 synthetic stimulants should be permanently classified as scheduled substances.
2012: Permanent US ban is imminent on few, select chemicals. In 2012 the Congress passed the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act – Synthetic Drugs, which will list MDPV and Mephedrone, but not Methylone.
The Effects of MDPV/Mephedrone (“Bath Salts”)
“Bath salts” are taken in many forms. Users may snort, shoot, eat or drink them. MDPV is a powerful stimulant that functions as a dopamine-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (NDRI). It has stimulatory effects on the central nervous system and cardiovascular system. Physical symptoms include: rapid heartbeat, increase in blood pressure, vasoconstriction, sweating. Mental symptoms include: euphoria, increases in alertness & awareness, increased wakefulness and arousal, anxiety, agitation, perception of a diminished requirement for food and sleep, and intense desire to re-dose. MDPV reportedly has four times the potency of Ritalin and Concerta. MDPV is sometimes labeled online as legal cocaine or legal amphetamines.
The effects have a duration of roughly 3 to 4 hours, with after effects such as tachycardia, hypertension, and mild stimulation lasting from 6 to 8 hours. High doses have been observed to cause intense, prolonged panic attacks in stimulant-intolerant users, and there are anecdotal reports of psychosis from sleep withdrawal and addiction at higher doses or more frequent dosing intervals. It’s addiction potential is not fully known at this time. However, one of the effects of MDPV is an intense desire to redose and there have been online reports from both professionals and users that MDPV is “strongly addicting”.
New research by scientists at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) indicates that the active compounds in “bath salts” (mephedrone and methylone) bind to monoamine transporters on the surface of some neurons. This in turn leads to an increase in the brain chemical serotonin, and to a lesser extent, dopamine, suggesting a mechanism that could underlie the addictive potential of these compounds.
Are There Any Dangers Involved in Using “Bath Salts” (MDPV, Mephedrone)
Yes. Until a drug is tested, it cannot be considered safe. MDPV and its ‘chemical cousins’ have not been tested by the FDA and thus little is known as to the harm potential. Some anecdotal stories involving ‘bath salt’ usage and their potential for harm come in news stories from across the nation, local emergency room reports and data collected from the American Association of Poison Control Center.
In 2010 there were 303 calls about MDPV (bath salt) products according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers’ National Poison Data System (NPDS).
As of April 30, 2012 poison centers reported 1007 calls for all of 2012 (6,138 calls in 2011). This shows the trend of how popular this class of drug has become, but it also shows that since the national ban, decreased usage, in the form of poison control center calls, is evident (1,007 calls in the first 4 months of 2012 and 2,027 calls in the same time period of 2011).
Since the National ban MDPV, Mephedrone and Methylone on October 21, 2011, November 2011 saw 231 calls reported, December 2011 – 222 calls, January 2012 – 222 calls, February 2012 – 230 calls, March 2012 – 264 calls, and April 2012 saw 285 calls. This is clear evidence that the national and state bans are having an impact on the use of, and medical necessity reasons to contact emergency rooms, for the chemicals that comprise “bath salts”.
The effects of synthetic cathinones can be wide ranging and in many instances dangerous. Here is a listing of the effects:
- Aggression
- Agitation
- Breathing difficulty
- Bruxism (grinding teeth)
- Confusion
- Dizziness
- Extreme anxiety sometimes progressing to violent behavior
- Fits and delusions
- Hallucinations
- Headache
- Hypertension (high blood pressure)
- Increased alertness/awareness
- Increased body temperature, chills, sweating
- Insomnia
- Kidney pain
- Lack of appetite
- Liver failure
- Loss of bowel control
- Muscle spasms
- Muscle tenseness
- Vasoconstriction (narrowing of the blood vessels)
- Nausea, stomach cramps, and digestive problems
- Nosebleeds
- Psychotic delusions
- Pupil dilation
- Renal failure
- Rhabdomyolysis (release of muscle fiber contents [myoglobin] that could lead to kidney problems)
- Severe paranoia
- Suicidal thoughts
- Tachycardia (rapid heartbeat)
- Tinnitus
How Legal/Illegal is MDPV, Mephedrone and Methylone (“Bath Salts”) Nationally?
On October 21, 2011 the DEA finalized a move to enact a temporary emergency control (ban) of three synthetic stimulants. The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is using its emergency scheduling authority to temporarily control three synthetic stimulants (Mephedrone, 3,4 methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV) and Methylone). Except as authorized by law, this action will make possessing and selling these chemicals or the products that contain them illegal in the U.S. for at least one year while the DEA and the United States Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) further study whether these chemicals should be permanently controlled. This emergency action was necessary to prevent an imminent threat to the public safety.
On March 1st, the DEA announced the ban of 5 synthetic cannabinoids (JWH-018, JWH-073, JWH-200, CP 47,497 and CP 47,497 C8), however, before the ban was in place, generation 2 of synthetic cannabinoids were already being sold in convenience stores with the makers touting none of the banned substances being in their product.
In Pennsylvania (on June 23, 2011), SB 1006 was passed by the House, Senate and approved by the Governor. This bill SB 1006 bans 6 synthetic stimulants including MDPV and Mephedrone (this PA bill bans the same 6 synthetic stimulants that NJ banned on April, 28, 2011). This bill is also proposing to ban sativa and 8 synthetic cannabinoids and their analogues.
An amendment added to the PA SB 1006 also includes language barring all chemicals that are similar to the substances that are currently found in bath salts, synthetic cannabinoids and 2C (hallucinogens such as 2C-E, 2C-I, 2C-P, 2C-H and their analogues, congeners, homologues, isomers, salts and salts of analogues, congeners, homologues and isomers), and prohibits those chemical compounds from being used to create the same effect as the current bath salts, sytnthetic cannabinoids and 2C chemical structures. This addition to the law will make Pennsylvania’s the strongest such law in the nation.
As historical perspective, these drugs got on the US Government radar in December, 2010, when the DEA published a report listing MDPV as a drug of concern. On February 1, 2011 Gil Kerlikowske, Director of National Drug Control Policy, released the following statement following recent reports indicating the emergent threat of these synthetic stimulants, stating that he was “deeply concerned,” and that “public health officials are working on this emerging issue.” These drugs have been around long before then, and very few of them are being banned 2 years after this first statement by the US Government.
When a federal ban is finally enacted on a drug, it does not mean local authorities will take action on this drug. States still need to enact legislation to ban the substances in order for state (then local) authorities to take action. Federal bans will go after larger distributors, but it will be locally determined as to whether users and smaller, local distributors (such as non-chain convenience stores and gas stations) will be sought after without a state ban.
The Facts: MDPV, Mephedrone, and other synthetic cathinones can cause serious psychiatric symptoms in people who have never exhibited such symptoms prior to usage. This can happen for some, while others will never experience these symptoms under the influence of these chemicals. However, the prevalence of people having abreactions is evident in Poison Control Center data, and in these types of anecdotal stories linked above. For those who have pre-existing psychiatric problems, ingesting these substances can further fracture and intensify these pre-existing psychiatric symptoms, which can be expressed in violent ways by some. There is no evidence of continued “zombiefication” of bath salt users after the drugs have left their system. Thus any zombie like tendencies (i.e., aggression leading to the severe mutilation of oneself or others) that could possibly exist, would only do so while under the influence, and wouldn’t persist after the effects of the drug have left a person’s system. Sorry, no Hollywood zombie apocalypse is evident with “bath salts” ingestion, only tragic consequences.
The Conclusion: “Bath Salts” are man made derivatives (i.e., synthetics) of naturally occurring stimulants, created and popularized by “armchair chemists” driven by profit potential and whose business acumen is much more developed than their chemistry abilities. The people ingesting these substances are what are known as in the gaming community as “beta testers” of products which cause such volatile reactions in some, that this “beta stress test” is obviously failing with oft-times gruesome, tragic (yet sadly “popular” and “trending”) results. But this unfortunately will not stop many from continuing down this path of using these potentially dangerous, untested, unregulated (in terms of the actual making of the drugs), synthetic drugs. Thus while the popularization, and light-heartedness of the “zombie apocalypse” is shedding a new light on the potential dangers of these class of drugs, it is quite possible that message gets lost due to the glib way it is being presented in the (social) media.
If I have been accused of selling or buying “bath salts” in Texas is there anything I can do?
First of all, you will want to immediately seek the legal advice of an experienced criminal law attorney. Only an attorney who works to keep up on current drug laws and trends can help you after an arrest. Do not let recent changes in the law make you vulnerable to being arrested for bath salts possession, use or distribution. Being arrested for any charge involving bath salts will change the course of your life immediately. Depending on the actual charge you may face misdemeanor or felony drug charges, you will face heavy fines, possible probation, house arrest and a possible jail sentence.
It is not advisable to confront these charges by yourself. Please do not hesitate to contact a Houston Bath Salts Defense Attorney to discuss your rights and how to protect them. For experience you can trust, contact the Charles Johnson Law Firm today at (713) 222-7577 to discuss your case. With his many years experience handling drug crimes in Texas he will thoroughly protect your rights, your freedom as well as your reputation.
