As the number of accidental poisonings explodes and parents recount horror stories of crazed teenagers high on synthetic marijuana and "bath salts," federal attempts to outlaw the chemicals have stalled.
The House has passed legislation that would outlaw "bath salts" and other chemical concoctions, sold at convenience stores and on the Internet as legal highs � and implicated in deaths and accidental poisonings around the country. But the legislation is stuck in the Senate, where Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is keeping it from reaching a floor vote.
As the Senate dukes it out, the clock is running on the Drug Enforcement Administration's year-long emergency bans, and casualties are growing.
The number of calls to poison control centers nationwide involving "bath salts" soared in 2011, to 6,138 from 304 in 2010. The drugs come in powder and crystal form, which resemble conventional bath salts. Users looking for a high will snort or eat the powder.
Poison control centers fielded nearly 7,000 calls about synthetic marijuana in 2011, up from 2,906 in 2010.
'Bath salt' abuse soarsCalls to poison control centers nationwide involving "bath salts" hit 457 through February.
Source: American Association of Poison Control Centers
"It is poison," said Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, a sponsor of a bill to outlaw synthetic marijuana. "People are spraying chemicals on a pile of plant clippings, putting that in an envelope and selling it to kids."
Sen. Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, called the spread of synthetic drugs "an epidemic overtaking our country."
Dozens of teens and young adults have been hospitalized in recent months � and some have died � after smoking, snorting or swallowing the chemicals, which mimic the highs associated with popular illegal drugs such as marijuana, cocaine and Ecstasy.
Users have arrived in hospital emergency rooms gravely ill, and occasionally violent, with puzzling symptoms that confound doctors, said Debbie Carr, executive director of the American Association of Poison Control Centers. Carr said the unusual spike in cases "caused national alarm."
�In Blaine, Minn., a 22-year-old man pleaded guilty to murder last month and faces 20 years in prison after he shared 2 C-E, a synthetic hallucinogen he purchased on the Internet, with friends at a party. One teenager who tried the drug died.
�In Casper, Wyo., last month, public health officials warned people to avoid the synthetic drugs after three people who smoked or swallowed "blueberry spice" went into kidney failure and at least a dozen others needed medical help. "We are viewing use of this drug as a potentially life-threatening situation," said Tracy Murphy, state epidemiologist with the Wyoming Department of Health.
�In Bowling Green, Ky., Ashley Stillwell, a recent high school graduate, took a hit of a synthetic marijuana known as 7H while hanging out at a hookah bar with friends last year and was hospitalized, her mother, Amy Stillwell, said. "Within three minutes, she was paralyzed," her mother said.
By Chris Knight, AP
Containers of �bath salts,� a synthetic cocaine, sit on a counter at Hemp�s Above in Mechanicsburg, Pa. Calls to poison control centers involving �bath salts� rose.
The teen could hear her friends talking about her, including discussing how they could dispose of her body in a river should she die, Amy Stillwell said.
When she finally recovered enough to call her parents, they took her to the hospital, where she complained that her heart felt as if it was beating out of her chest. A drug screen didn't detect anything, so doctors called poison control to figure out how to treat her.
DEA Administrator Michelle Leonhart has used the agency's emergency powers to temporarily outlaw the substances while the FDA conducts the scientific and medical studies needed to include the chemicals under the Controlled Substances Act, making them the equivalent of marijuana, cocaine and other illicit drugs.
A year-long ban on three synthetic stimulants used to make "bath salts" expires Oct. 21. The ban on synthetic marijuana expires in September.
Leonhart believes the chemicals pose "an imminent danger" to the public, said Special Agent Gary Boggs of the DEA's Office of Diversion Control.
Manufacturers of the mixtures evade federal FDA regulations by printing a warning on the labels that says they are not for human consumption, Boggs said.
"What that means is that people are taking things that are manufactured under unregulated and unlicensed conditions," he said. "These aren't really bath salts. These things are made in basements and garages and warehouses."
At least 39 states have taken steps to ban synthetic marijuana, and 34 states have outlawed baths salts. The latest laws ban broad classes of the chemicals to prevent chemists from tweaking formulas to make them fall outside the ban. A permanent federal ban would allow agents to act against people who import the drugs, sell them on the Internet and ship them across state lines.
Florida passed a ban in 2011 and then had to amend it this year because of "the ingenuity of the street chemists" who changed the moleuclar formulation to evade the law, said Florida Sen. Greg Evers, who sponsored the legislation. The legislature added nearly 90 different chemical formulations to its ban.
"Next year, we'll just do it again until we come up with the magic language," Evers said.
Congressional supporters hoped to bypass the lengthy regulatory process for banning the chemicals by passing a law that adds them to the banned list. But Paul, a libertarian who says criminal justice is the purview of the states, placed a hold on the federal legislation that prevents the Senate from debating it.
"He's a doctor. He understands these compounds are dangerous," said Paul spokeswoman Moira Bagley. "Our state has already made it illegal. It would be great to do that in all the states."
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., a former prosecutor who proposed legislation to ban the synthetic hallucinogens, said she and several other senators are trying to persuade Paul to lift his block and allow debate on the Senate floor.
"We've had many instances in our state of people who nearly died," Klobuchar said. "It's clear that this is a growing, expanding and dangerous problem.These synthetic drugs are often worse than the illegal drugs they claim to be."
Trevor Robinson-Davis, 19, of Blaine, Minn., died in March 2011 after snorting a hallucinogen in the "2C" category at a house party.
His friend, Timothy Lamere, 22, pleaded guilty last month to third-degree murder . Lemere had purchased the chemicals from Denmark via the Internet and shared them with people at the party. Lamere, who will be sentenced May 25, faces 10 years in prison, Anoka County Attorney Tony Palumbo said.
Robinson-Davis "reacted to the drug by punching walls, breaking items, staring and having dilated pupils and yelling," Anoka County Detective Larry Johnson wrote in a sworn complaint. Soon, witnesses told Johnson, he stopped breathing. Nine others who used the drug at the party also became sick.
"It illustrates a disturbing trend amoung young people who believe just because they acquired something over the Internet it is both safe and legal," Palumbo said. "It is probably neither."
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