Bath Salts Related Emergency Room Visits

Synthetic marijuana and bath salts continue to send people to emergency rooms at alarming rates despite efforts to combat these insidious drugs. In 2011 alone, there were 23,000 emergency room visits associated with “bath salts,” according to a new report conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

Bath salts are consumed in a number of ways, either by mouth, inhalation, or injection. SAMHSA found that bath salts usage can cause:

• Heart and Blood Vessel Problems
• Depression
• Suicidal Thoughts
• Psychosis
• Death

The new report is the first national study to take a close look at bath salts-related emergency room visits, according to HealthDay. Hopefully, these new statistics will jump start the actions that a have been failing to put “bath salts” production under wraps.

The SAMHSA report showed that 33 percent of these hospital visits involved only bath salts. 15 percent of patients had bath salts as well as marijuana or synthetic marijuana in their system, and 52 percent of patients had other drugs in conjunction with “bath salts” in their blood.

“Although bath salts drugs are sometimes claimed to be ‘legal highs’ or are promoted with labels to mask their real purpose, they can be extremely dangerous when used,” Dr. Elinore McCance-Katz, Chief Medical Officer of SAMHSA, said in a news release.  

Almost 2.5 million U.S. emergency department visits involved drug misuse or abuse in 2011.

Related articles

• 'Bath Salts' Drugs Led to 23,000 ER Visits in One Year: U.S. Report (nlm.nih.gov)
• What you need to know about synthetic drugs (cnn.com)