ER sees rise in 'bath salt' overdoses
SIKESTON -- Local emergency room personnel are alarmed by a number of recent overdoses on designer drugs being sold as "bath salts."
According to Missouri Delta Medical Center officials, over a half dozen overdoses on these drugs have come into the ER -- five of those in less than four days.
"It's becoming a definite increasing concern for the medical staff here," said Terry Paxton, nursing director for the ER at Missouri Delta. "The word on the street is that it is like floating on the clouds but it's definitely taking you in the other direction. It is not a fun drug, not a fun high and it can be extremely dangerous."
Symptoms include "extreme agitation, paranoia, hallucination, significant elevation in blood pressure, fast heart rates, chest pain -- some of the scarier symptoms are suicidal and homicidal thoughts: thoughts of harming themselves or others. These symptoms can last for days after ingestion."
Ivory Wave, Pure X, Sextacy, Cloud Nine, White Lightning and Hurricane Charlie are a few of the names the drug is being sold under.
"There's so little known about them at this time, we really don't know enough about it to inform the public other than to say: it's deadly -- do not do it."
For the complete article and more local news stories, see the July 3 edition of the Standard Democrat or click here to log on to the electronic edition.