At least once a week someone stopping by here at Sunflower
Farm asks me about “bath salts” and asks what about “bath salts” causes this crazy “high”, so that’s why I’ve chosen to write about this.
The drug that has been making the news these days called “bath salts”, really has nothing at all to do with a bath or with salt. “Bath salts”, as it is commonly referred to, is actually a synthetic drug made in a lab. Some of the other names it goes by is “plant food” , “baby powder” and several more. What you see in stores marketed as “bath salts” are actually that, bath salts, and have many therapeutic uses. The drug sold as “bath salts” on the streets is a combination of many synthetic substances such as mephedrone, pyrovalerone, MDPV, methylone and
Some of the effects produced by “bath salts” are hallucinations,
paranoia, panic attacks, elevated heart rate and blood pressure, hostility,
aggression, sweating, suicidal thoughts, and more. We’ve all heard the horrific news stories about violent crimes perpetrated by people on “bath salts”.
As far as the bath salts available to all of us at the store, most are distilled from sea water and contain mainly sodium chloride and trace minerals. The more exotic salts, such as Himalayan, Grey, Dead Sea and others, may contain very little sodium chloride but are rich in unique minerals. As an example, salt from the Dead Sea (my personal favorite) contains Magnesium, Bromide, Sulfur, Potassium, Sodium, Calcium, Iodine and Zinc.
So, other than sharing the name of “bath salts”, one really has nothing to do with the other, but the publicity has been enough to make many people wonder if the bath salts they see in stores are the same as those spoken about recently in the news. Hopefully the information I’ve provided here has helped to define the difference for those who were wondering.
