I've told you before about bath salts and incense, which I first saw at a Nazareth gas station a few months ago. The manager told me that kids were using them to get high ... legally. The gas station was making lots of money.On Christmas day, an Easton couple on bath salts hallucinated that people were trying to break into their home. The wife was found readying herself to jump out a second floor window, child in arms. Dad was brandishing a huge metal sword, breaking windows as he went.
They sound like Dr. Gonzo and Raoul Duke on an ether binge.
"There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge, and I knew we'd get into that rotten stuff pretty soon."
In Lackawanna County, bath salts have been banned. In Luzerne County, a judge has granted an injunction against their sale. In the Pennsylvania state house, a bill banning their sale was adopted unanimously in March.
Just like ether.
At 10 AM tomorrow, U.S. Reps. Charlie Dent (PA-15) and Patrick Meehan (PA-7) will hold a press conference in Philly to discuss synthetic drug abuse and legislation to ban various synthetic drug substitutes sold legally in Pennsylvania.
The Synthetic Drug Control Act (H.R. 1254), authored by Rep. Dent and cosponsored by Rep. Meehan, bans synthetic drugs that mimic the hallucinogenic or stimulant properties of marijuana, cocaine, crystal meth, LSD, and other street drugs. The ban would apply to drugs known as ‘Bath Salts’ or ‘Plant Food’, which have garnered much public attention in Pennsylvania, where disturbing cases of violent, erratic and dangerous behavior have been linked to recreational use of the substances.
In addition to Dent and Meehan, this news conference will be attended by Dr. Kevin Osterhoudt, Director, Poison Control Center (PCC), Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP); D. Michael Green, District Attorney, Delaware County; and Seth Williams, District Attorney, City of Philadelphia.
1 comment:
Just what we need. Another drug law. They've been working so well so far. While it may be easy to enact an ineffective law, and no doubt make the drug dealers (who can add one more substance to make obscene profits on to push) and the prison unions happy (who are always glad for more jobs and overtime) it still won't change the fact that treatment and therapy for chemical addiction will do more for the public by 2 to 1 in tax dollars than enforcement and imprisonment.
I like Dent. I voted for Dent. But the man is grossly out of touch when it comes to dealing with the drug prohibition laws and how to help people with chemical abuse and addictions. Enacting feel good and ineffective prohibitions are not helping the general public in the least.
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