Mother concerned by availability of bath salts

YORK COUNTY, S.C.,None — Kristen Roberts is worried about her 19-year-old son. She hasn't seen him in days.

"I don't know if he's out there in a ditch somewhere," Roberts said.

This week, she said she noticed him acting strangely and sick.

"He just lost it. He didn't seem to know where he was. He was acting crazy kind of, waving his arms around," she said.

She said she searched his car and found an empty container of bath salts.

Bath salts are sold in many stores as a relaxation product. However, some young people are inhaling them, smoking them and even injecting the chemicals to get high. It's a high that mimics the effects of cocaine, but also causes hallucinations.

"They call it bath salts, but who knows what's really in it?" said Marvin Brown, commander of York County's multi-jurisdictional drug enforcement unit.

"It's causing people to jump through plate glass windows. It's causing people to get hurt. People are walking around and their eyes are just dilated."

Bath salts took off rapidly over the past two years, as synthetic marijuana was also arriving on the scene.

When the government banned synthetic marijuana, manufacturers simply changed the ingredients and continued selling it under new names, such as K-3.

Now, bath salts are the target of the federal Drug Enforcement Agency. The DEA issued a statement in early September, planning to add several of the chemicals in bath salts to the list of controlled substances.

There is a 30-day period before the ban can take effect. That period is about to expire.

Brown said he expects the feds to go forward with the national ban.

"It will disappear from store shelves, from the legitimate stores, because we can go in and seize it and charges can be made," he said.

Roberts said she was terrified when she saw the condition of her son. She went immediately to the Shell station on Highway 161 near Rock Hill that she said sold him the bath salts. Channel 9 was with her Friday when she went back to check and see if the product was still being sold.

The store owner didn't want to be interviewed, but said he took it off the shelves on Tuesday after her complaint, and wasn't selling it anymore. Roberts said a federal ban will help, but that doesn't mean bath salts will completely disappear. She urged parents to get involved.

"This is killing our kids. Parents need to step up now," she said.

WSOC