Bath Salts Now Illegal In Canada

Bath salts, white crystals that resemble legal bathing products such as epsom salts, is the informal “street name” for a family of designer drugs often containing substituted cathinones, which have effects similar to amphetamine and cocaine.

Park Hills Police Det. Mike Kurtz says Rikki Lynn Duncan Shibley was allegedly under the influence bath salts Thursday and attacked another woman with a hammer. Kurtz says Shibley told police that she had snorted bath salts and had to kill her boyfriend’s mother or she would be killed by a group of shadow people. – Published: September 15, 2012
Authorities suspect the Doylestown man [Richard Cimino Jr., 20] who allegedly gnawed on a woman’s head in Hawley after stripping his clothes and jumping from a second-story window on Friday may have been under the influence of bath salts. – Published: September 14, 2012
A theology graduate who wanted to be a priest died after taking designer drug “Sextasy” during a bizarre internet sex session. Paul Iles took the drug, also known as Bath Salts, during sex games while wearing a gas mask, rubber suit and Wellies. An inquest heard the 31-year-old telephone salesman had taken off the rubber gear before collapsing in his kitchen. – Published: September 6, 2012
A New York woman, allegedly high on “bath salts”, was killed after police tasered her. Onlookers photographed Pamela McCarthy, who was attacking her three-year-old son. […] The police were called to the scene at 7.45pm with reports that McCarthy was punching and choking her toddler and trying to strangle her pit-bull. – Published: June 15, 2012
After purchasing a packet of bath salts called Cloud Nine, BMX rider Dickie Sanders snorted the powder inside the packet and soon experienced waves of hallucinations lasting days, his father, Rick Sanders, said. Dickie was convinced there were dozens of police cars and helicopters just outside the home, even though there were none. Then, suddenly, he grabbed a knife and sliced at his throat from ear to ear. He survived the knife wound and told his mother he had had enough. “He actually looked at me and said, ‘I can’t handle what this drug has done to me. I’m never going to touch anything again,'” Julie Sanders said. But hours later and without warning, Dickie had another psychotic episode and shot himself with a rifle. – Published: June 3, 2011

Finally, the Canadian government has banned the key ingredient found in “bath salts”, Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV), which impacts the central nervous system and can lead to heart attack, kidney failure and suicide.

Consequently, it is now illegal to possess traffic, import or export this substance, unless authorized by regulation for scientific research like other illicit drugs in the same category, such as cocaine and heroin.

Likewise, the substance is already banned in other countries, such as Australia and the United States. In addition, other drugs sometimes used to make “bath salts”, mephedrone and methylone, have already been banned in Canada.

Banning a drug gives police the authority to investigate suspected illegal activities involving the banned substance.

“This regulatory amendment responds to concerns expressed by health officials about the health and safety risks associated with the use of MDPV, as well as by law enforcement and the Canada Border Services Agency about the substance’s growing popularity and availability in Canada,” the statement says.

Fortunately, a ban should mean that acquiring the substance will become much more difficult and hopefully this will lead to a reduction in the number of immediately life altering incidents.

Canada bans key ingredient in ‘bath salts’ drug known for chaotic, violent reactions
Bath salts (drug)
Methylenedioxypyrovalerone