“Bath salts,” a synthetic stimulant with hallucinogenic properties, is legal in Ohio.
The drug has been linked to three area deaths and is suspected in two others, according to the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office.
“It is very similar to the type of symptoms and side effects you would see from someone who is either abusing cocaine or methamphetamine,” DeCamp said.
Those effects can include chest pains, increased blood pressure and heart rate, agitation, paranoia, hallucinations and delusions, he said.
The department is tracking bath salts through the Ohio Substance Abuse Monitoring Network, a group of researchers and treatment providers that helps it identify new drug trends.
Little is known but “there are things to be very much concerned about,” DeCamp said.
Bath salts have been linked to at least two other fatalities in Ohio, officials said.
One death in the Cleveland area “has been ruled on as related to bath salts,” said Dr. Thomas Gilson, Cuyahoga County medical examiner. The drug is suspected in at least one other investigation, he said.
“I do think its frequency is increasing,” Gilson said.
The drug’s active ingredient, methylenediopyrovalerone (MDPV), was identified in a Youngstown-area fatality, but it wasn’t the sole cause of death, said Dr. Joseph Ohr, forensic pathologist at the Mahoning County Coroner’s Office, who called it a multiple drug intoxication.
“Bath salts” also have been linked to Cincinnati criminal cases by the Hamilton County Crime Laboratory, said Terry Daly, a spokesman for the county Coroner’s Office.
DeCamp said the alcohol and drug department supports legislation proposed by State Rep. Clayton Luckie, D-Dayton, to classify some chemicals found in bath salts in the same category as LSD, marijuana and heroin.
“Our hope is that with the legislation that Rep. Luckie has put out there that will curb the availability and, hopefully, short-circuit any type of trend that we might be seeing,” DeCamp said.
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