Bath salts, dangerous new street drug entering Canadian market

Like all street drugs with misleadingly pleasant names, they sound like something you'd love to receive in a cellophane-wrapped gift basket.

But unlike their original namesake, these bath salts can trigger psychosis, hallucinations and suicidal tendencies and as multiple news outlets are reporting, they're the "new drug of choice" in Canada.

Bath salts — or mephedrone — is the name for a new synthetic drug that offers a potent combination of methamphetamine-like highs and visions similar to those experienced by LSD abusers. Bathers looking for traces of Epsom will be disappointed.

Already well established in England and the U.S., doctors in Nova Scotia have said they're now treating up to three bath salts-related cases per week.

Because it's so new, Health Canada has yet to outlaw some of the legal, over-the-counter chemicals (like methylenedioxypyrovalerone) that go into the drug.

That means until it's classified as an illegal substance, the drugs, under names like "Ivory Wave" and "Vanilla Sky" can still be legally ordered online from the U.S.

"It's unbelievable how big this problem could become," Ontario Provincial Police drug enforcement Det. Sgt. Paul Henry told the Ottawa Sun after area police seized $200,000-worth of the drug last week.

Trips can last for days at a time and are reported to be "10 times more powerful" than cocaine.

The fallout, on the other hand, can be gruesome.

In the U.S., where bath salts are a more widespread problem, users have been known to stab themselves and others and jump out windows.

And in a story that almost seemed too horrifying to be true, medical experts suspect bath salts played an instrumental role in this weekend's Florida face-eating incident.

Police shot and killed Rudy Eugene after the 31-year-old was caught naked and gnawing the face off a homeless man on a highway off-ramp.

Back in Canada, CBC interviewed a Nova Scotia man who described his ghastly experience with bath salts.

"Felt like I wanted to kill me or kill somebody else. Horrible feeling of sketchiness, constantly looking over your shoulder or peeking out around your curtains or windows, hiding under the blankets," he said, adding that a friend told him he "looked like a corpse."

Though the drug has already been banned in the U.S., Australia, the United Kingdom and much of Europe, Health Canada has yet to take a formal stance.

However, in an email to the CBC, a spokesperson said they don't recommend the use of bath salts due to their "potentially dangerous health effects."