Last updated : July 7, 2025
When hearing the term “designer drugs” in the early 2000s, your mind may have gone straight to bath salts. They were all the rage within the United States’ drug culture at the time. Young people sought them out for recreational use. There’s nothing like being the life of the party after all! Bath salts were extremely easy to purchase on the streets and—for a while anyway—in-store.
However, after ingesting these drugs, people began flooding emergency rooms across the United States. They showed up agitated, violent, and, in most instances, exhibiting psychotic behavior. The effects of the drug seemed to enable them with superhuman strength coupled with intense rage. Sadly, some never came out of that state and wound up in the psych ward for a really long time.
After news broke as to this extremely dangerous drug being sold in stores across the nation—convenience stores included—states began banning the sales. On October 12, 2011, the federal government classified bath salts under its strictest ruling making them all a Schedule 1 substance. This classification is reserved for substances with a high potential for abuse and addiction with no currently accepted use for any type of medical treatment. In short, it had been banned from the country.
Was it out of sight, out of mind?
It may appear these days that once the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) placed drugs falling under the bath salts category on its controlled substances list they disappeared from the black market. Moreover, brand names, such as Cloud Nine, Bliss, White Lightening, and Lunar Wave were definitely getting pulled off store shelves. Stories about one of these drugs, commonly identified abroad as monkey dust, wreaking havoc in Australia and the United Kingdom began to hit the media about that time. Moreover, as far as the United Kingdom is concerned at least, monkey dust is still raging out of control in sections of the country today.
Despite the fact that we may not hear about violent acts being committed by individuals high on bath salts, here, in the United States, if you take the time to look around, it’s evident that they still come into our country. Back in June of this year, United States Customs and Border Protection officers seized 70 pounds of bath salts as they came through customs. The drugs were discovered in two boxes marked as containing beauty products being shipped from China to an address in Washington.
Since we know they’re being imported, it only makes sense to assume that somewhere, sometime over the last few years since the government opened the southern border, bath salts are being brought into the country and finding their way into the hands of distributors and dealers here in the United States.
What are bath salts exactly?
In short, bath salts are synthetically created drugs that aim to mimic other drugs, such as:
- Cocaine
- LSD
- MDMA, otherwise known as ecstasy
- Methamphetamine
- Heroin
Due to their affordability, bath salts are popular among teens and young adults, especially. Hopefully, since the crackdown on bath salts in 2011, they’re no longer sold mainstream. However, drug cartels have no respect for law and order, if anyone doubted that fact, the bust in June proves the point. Rest assured that bath salts are—and have been—available in the United States.
The substances are made with chemicals that poison the body but are highly addictive. Moreover, the user forms a tolerance to the drug which means that they need to use higher and higher doses of the drug to gain the same effect.
Signs and symptoms of abuse
Bath salts cause users to exhibit extreme behaviors that include:
- Risk-taking behavior
- Euphoria
- Nervousness
- Panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Hallucinations
- Extreme agitation
- Violent behavior
These types of drugs also cause dangerous side effects which include:
- Increased blood pressure
- Increased heart rate
- Chest pains
- Dehydration
- Kidney failure
- Breakdown of skeletal muscle tissues
It’s important to note that snorting these drugs, a common means of ingestion, increases the risk of suffering these dangerous side effects.
Users experience physical changes in appearance that include:
- Sudden weight loss
- Paranoia
- Aggressive behavior
- Difficulty sleeping
- Teeth grinding
- Nasal damage
- Secretiveness
- Financial issues
- Social withdraw
Can addictions be treated?
It’s important to note here that bath salts are extremely toxic and cause severe mental and physical health problems from which some never recover.
The first step of recovery, as far as drug addiction, is to experience a safe withdrawal period. Depending on the severity of the addiction, patients can detox at either an inpatient or outpatient facility. When entering an inpatient facility, patients are monitored 24 by trained medical staff and counselors. If someone is suffering from severe addiction, the accompanying withdrawal symptoms can become life-threatening.
Withdrawal symptoms can include:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Shaking
- Paranoia
- Trouble sleeping
This would be the opportune situation for anyone trying to beat their addiction. However, life is life and some situations don’t allow for inpatient recovery periods.
When someone has the drive to beat addiction to bath salts—or any drug, for that matter—outpatient rehabilitation programs enable the patient to stay at home, but, they must periodically check in to a drug rehab center to attend counseling and, perhaps, classes, at regular intervals.
Ultimately, the will to succeed is what drives people to beat an addiction to drugs. When that drive is coupled with a sound rehabilitation process that includes giving people the tools they need to avoid pitfalls, the success rate skyrockets. If you have an employee—or loved one for that matter—who suffers from drug addiction, letting them know that you have high hopes for their drug-free future can be the glimmer of hope that gives them the will to keep fighting when the journey gets tough.
And, we know, it’s going to get tough, but when the glimmer of hope bursts into the brilliant light of victory—
We’ll just let your thoughts take it from there.
