Page 17 - Demo

BATH SALTS & FLAKKA
FROM THE SAME CHEMIST’S BOOK
Cathinone is a stimulant found in khat, a plant grown in Yemen, Ethiopia, Somalia and other countries near the Horn of Africa. It is a mild and addictive stimulant that is released into the body when the leaves of this plant are chewed. The trafficking of this plant is very limited because the drug loses its stimulating qualities very quickly after harvesting.
A wave of bizarre news stories are related to the use of a variety of synthetic cathinones. Widespread incidents of users stripping their clothes off (the drugs can raise body temperature); biting people, cutting themselves with knives and having to be subdued by multiple policemen are common. One woman in Minnesota on Bath Salts thought she was a grizzly bear. A man in Florida
Synthetic cathinones are a different matter. These are strong and dangerous stimulants invented in a laboratory. Chemically, they resemble the intoxicant in the khat plant. But unlike the plant, they have had deadly effects for too many people.
on Flakka tried to break into a police station. A man in West Virginia was found wearing women’s clothing and covered in the blood of a neighbor’s pet goat he had slaughtered.
Synthetic drugs like Bath Salts, Molly, Flak-
ka and NBOMe, are all products of fast-evolving technology. The term synthetic means man-made. Underground chemists constantly tweak formulas, even just by a molecule or two, as they race to stay one step ahead of U.S. authorities and new drug laws.
People abusing these drugs believe that they will have more energy, endurance and heightened sexual experiences and that the substances will be undetectable by drug tests. At one time, they were not detectable. Now, drug tests can detect more than a dozen of these chemicals
BATH SALTS
Volume 10 • lawpublications.net • 16
By July 2015 poison control centers received 4,377 reports of people suffering the effects of synthetic marijuana, compared to 3,682 in all of
last year.