Mississippi Senate OKs Ban on 'Bath Salt Drugs'

JACKSON, Miss. - Mississippi is moving closer to outlawing fake bath salts and other products containing toxic chemicals that some people are using to get a psychotic high.

A ban passed the Senate unanimously on Friday and moves to the House for more work.

The bill would ban mephedrone and MDPV -- short for methylenedioxypyrovalerone.

"It's a chemical that doesn't have a legitimate reason to be in bath salts," said Senate Drug Policy Committee Chairman Sid Albritton, R-Picayune.

Officials say the chemicals are sold in small packets in convenience stores under such names as Ivory Wave, Bliss, White Lightning and Hurricane Charlie.

The chemicals can cause hallucinations, paranoia and suicidal thoughts, authorities say.

Albritton said regular, unadulterated bath salts -- not the kind used for getting high, but the kind actually used for bathing -- sell for about $4.50 for three pounds. He said a packet of the fake bath salts sells for $20 for 200 milligrams.

Manufacturers are putting dangerous chemicals into products such as bath salts and plant foods and skirting Food and Drug Administration regulation by labeling them as not for human consumption, Albritton said. Through word of mouth and the Internet, information spreads about how the products can be used to produce a high similar to that produced by PCP or methamphetamine, he said.

"Basically, this is the new, 21st-century way of dealing drugs," Albritton said.

Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics director Marshall Fisher said in an interview Friday that the products have been a problem in the northern part of the state and along the Gulf Coast but not yet in the metro Jackson area.

No senator spoke against the bill, and many added their names to it as co-sponsors.

Other states are taking steps to outlaw the fake bath salts. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal did so by emergency order this month after the state's poison center received more than 125 calls in the last three months of 2010 involving exposure to the chemicals.

Dr. Mark Ryan, director of Louisiana's poison control center, told The Associated Press this month that least 25 states have received calls about exposure to the chemicals, including Nevada and California.

The bill in Mississippi is named in honor of Tippah County Deputy Dewayne Crenshaw, who was shot to death Dec. 3. Authorities believe the man charged the slaying was high on fake bath salts when Crenshaw was killed.

The House is expected to pass the bill, which would become law immediately if Gov. Haley Barbour signs it. Fisher said he hopes the process moves quickly.

"It's not worth losing another officer," Fisher said.

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The bill is Senate Bill 2226.