Pubdate: Tue, 12 Jun 2012
Source: Edmonton Journal (CN AB)
Copyright: 2012 The Edmonton Journal
Contact: 
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/opinion/letters/letters-to-the-editor.html
Website: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/134
Author: Paula Simons

BANNING BATH SALTS NOT A SOLUTION

But it seems easier than tackling root causes of drug addiction

When I first heard about the proposed ban on bath salts about two 
weeks ago, I was baffled.

I was driving into the office, when I flicked on CBC Radio halfway 
into an interview about all the dreadful social and medical damage 
done by bath salts in the Maritimes and New England.

I'm not much of a fan of adding perfumy stuff to my bath water, but I 
couldn't for the life of me figure why a ban would be necessary. As 
soon as I parked, I whipped out my phone to Google bath salts. That 
was the first I learned about a powerful new synthetic street drug 
made with ingredients such as methylenedioxpyrovalene (MDPV), 
mephedrone, methylone and high doses of caffeine. Right now, bath 
salts are legal in Canada and relatively cheap.

They can be injected, smoked, snorted, even mixed into food or drink. 
The initial effects include relaxation and euphoria.

University of Alberta pharmacologist Alan Hudson says the chemicals 
stimulate the brain's production of serotonin, adrenalin and dopamine.

"It's like a cross between amphetamines and ecstasy. You get a nice buzz."

The considerably less pleasant symptoms include paranoia, 
hallucinations, aggression, panic attacks, elevated heart rate, blood 
pressure and body temperature, and suicidal feelings.

"Because they've never been tested, we just don't know how toxic they 
are," Hudson says.

Bath salts hit the news late last month, initially implicated in a 
gruesome Miami assault in which Rudy Eugene attacked a homeless man 
and savagely bit his face. Police shot and killed him. A subsequent 
autopsy found no evidence of bath salts in Eugene's system.

Nonetheless, the tabloid grotesquerie of the attack triggered a wave 
of stories across Canada about the danger of bath salts. In response, 
federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq announced plans to add MDPV to 
Canada's list of controlled substances.

Whether or not the Miami attack was linked to bath salts, they're 
clearly not good for anyone. The U.S. put a temporary ban on the sale 
of mephedrone, MDPV and methylone last year. Politically speaking, 
it's tempting to follow suit.

Still, before we open another front in our endless war on drugs, 
let's pause. Edmonton police know of only two cases of bath salt 
overdoses in the past six months. Local hospitals have seen no 
evidence of a problem. That's not to say we'll remain immune; bath 
salt abuse seems particularly high in the Maritimes, and there's 
plenty of migration between Alberta and the East Coast.

Perhaps the very reasons we've not yet seen a big problem with bath 
salts here is because they remain legal.

Ban something and its value goes up. Make something notorious, its 
cachet increases. Make bath salts illegal, you drive prices up, 
giving organized crime syndicates greater incentive to produce and 
sell them. Call bath salts "the next crack" or "the new meth," you 
give dealers invaluable publicity.

And since bath salts can be made of a number of different chemicals, 
it's hard to know what we're banning. So far, the Harper government 
is only planning to ban MDPV - only one possible bath salt component. 
Britain banned another component, mephedrone, in 2010. But according 
to a study published last year in the respected medical journal, The 
Lancet, the ban had no impact on drug use.

"Before the introduction of the legislation, users generally obtained 
mephedrone via the Internet. Now they buy it from street dealers, on 
average at double the price," The Lancet concluded. "We suspect that, 
in time, there are likely to be reductions in purity, and increases 
in health harms."

Hudson says it's next to impossible for the legal system to keep up 
with inventive chemists constantly coming up with new legal highs. He 
says it makes no sense for Canada to ban MDPV in particular.

"I'm unclear as to why they're focusing on this one particular 
chemical. I would think the government would place bans based on 
scientific evidence."

The law of supply and demand is immutable. We cannot fight addiction 
and substance abuse through prohibition alone. As long as people are 
so bored, so hopeless, so depressed, so stressed, so mentally ill, so 
desperate for escape or for thrills, that they seek solace through 
dangerous, consciousness-altering chemicals, dealers will always have buyers.

Banning things is far easier, of course, than tackling complex social 
ills. But until and unless we're willing to tackle the root causes of 
drug abuse and addiction, the war on drugs can never end.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom