Bad news for those who just want to fill up the tub with some "Energizing Aromatherapy," relax and soak their aching dogs in healing vapors: the DEA raided stores across the city that offered illegal "bath salts." Both New York and New Jersey's health commissioner banned the drug this spring using their emergency powers, and in a press release [pdf] US attorney Preet Bharara says "'Bath salts'…have proven to be a public health and safety menace, with serious and sometimes deadly consequences." Ten people were arrested in the sting, which took $2 million dollars worth of "bath salts" off the street, and included tattoo stores in the East Village, Greenwich Village, and Brooklyn.
At the store in Brooklyn, an undercover officer bought "bath salts" from a vendor who said they were the "best shit," and according to the Daily News, said his customers "included strippers from clubs in Manhattan." According to the attorney's office, companies in China and India are primarily supplying the drug, and "typically mislabel the product to evade detection by law enforcement." Effects of the drug vary from "highs similar to that of the drug ecstasy, and stimulants like cocaine and methamphetamine." Though the bust is certainly a success for law enforcement, if we've learned anything it's that people will do just about anything to get high.
