According to a news article published by The Scripps Research Institute in their column, “News & Views,” recent research findings show that the recreational drug “bath salts” is more addictive than meth. The news article reported the results of an experiment comparing the drug-seeking behaviors of rats addicted to bath salts with those of rats addicted to meth.
The rats were first allowed to form an addiction to their respective stimulant drugs by dosing themselves intravenously through the pressing of a lever, the news article said. An experiment designed to establish how much the rats wanted each drug required the animals to press their levers an increasing number of times in order to obtain each dosage. It was assumed that if the rats worked harder, by pressing the level more often, this would indicate that they were more addicted to the drug in question.
According to the news article, rats addicted to meth pressed their levels an average of 60 times for each dose. Rats addicted to bath salts pressed their levers an astounding 600 times on average for each dose. Some rats pressed their levers as many as 3,000 times for a single dose of bath salts, the news article said. Scientists interpret this as the addicted rats willing to work more than 10 times as hard to get a dose of bath salts as they will to get a dose of meth.
Though bath salts have only recently entered the public consciousness as a recreational drug, the compound they’re derived from is not at all new. The news article pointed out that 3,4-methylenedioxypyrovalerone, the active ingredient in bath salts, are a derivative of cathinone, a compound found in the khat leaf, which is traditionally chewed in the Arabian peninsula and North Africa for its stimulant effects. Cathinone was synthesized long ago by pharmaceutical manufacturers, but was never used commercially. Synthetic derivatives have been sold as “plant food” or “bath salts” since the early 2000s, when black market chemists rediscovered the drug. Their sale is now banned in the U.S. due to their horrifying effects on users.
If you or someone close to you is addicted to bath salts, it’s imperative that you get help right away. Call us at 1-888-699-5679 to find out what The Delray Center for Healing can do for you.