# "Bath Salts" and real bath salts
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bath-salts-and-real-bath-salts/625186
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 14, 2012, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bath-salts-and-real-bath-salts/625186 "2012-06-14T23:55:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2012, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bath-salts-and-real-bath-salts/625186/41 "2012-06-19T18:49:29Z")
> [@Lumpy](#):
>
> So are sellers of actual for-your-bathtub bath salts having any trouble due to the now-ubiquitous name for the illegal drug?
I’d imagine so. When these stories show up, they talk about the crazy things people do when high on bath salts. But I can’t recall a single story that had an explanatory line of “this is a new synthetic drug that’s being sold under the street name of ‘bath salts’.” They just talk about bath salts as if everyone’s supposed to realize it’s not the same thing as what you’d get from a beauty store.
When I first heard about people being high on bath salts, my reaction was “holy crap! How in the hell could bath salts affect you like that.” My second reaction was “this is probably just some sort of joke. They’re on PCP and everyone’s just saying ‘bath salts’ because it’s funny.” and it took a few attempts at Googling before I hit upon exactly what this drug was. I imagine most people won’t even go through that effort and just think “no more bath salts for me!”
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### Author:  [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2012, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bath-salts-and-real-bath-salts/625186/42 "2012-06-19T18:55:17Z")
> [@Enderw24](#):
>
> I imagine most people won’t even go through that effort and just think “no more bath salts for me!”
While I don’t necessarily disagree with this, I still think it’s fucking retarded. C’mon people. :smack:
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### Author:  [@Dufus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dufus)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2012, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bath-salts-and-real-bath-salts/625186/43 "2012-06-20T16:09:28Z")
> [@](#):
>
> the news media has not been clear the drug and the product are different things
> they just said “Bath Salts”…not “the drug called Bath Salts”
> Actually, I too was quite confused by the stories about “Bath Salts” when they first started appearing in the media
> I didn’t know the connection to bath salts was entirely bullshit.
Just another example of what the news media has become.
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### Author:  [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2012, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bath-salts-and-real-bath-salts/625186/44 "2012-06-20T16:22:56Z")
> [@psiekier](#):
>
> In my family, we laugh occasionally, claiming, “it’s not a _bong!_ It’s a water pipe for fine tobacco!”
>
> It astounds me that such equipment is still sold legally _anywhere_ in the US, much less in head shops that are permanent brick-and-mortar locations with advertising and clientele.
>
> Not too far from my house, there’s a nasty-looking convenience store (the dreaded “Dan-D-Mart”) that, amongst other things, sells “water pipes”, as well as airsoft guns and replica medieval weapons like battle axes and flails.
>
> Who shops there, Hawkman?
Ah, come on man, lay off the guy. He already quit smoking, pcp and crack. Let the man have a little weed.
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### Author:  [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2012, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bath-salts-and-real-bath-salts/625186/45 "2012-06-20T16:58:35Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#):
>
> While I don’t necessarily disagree with this, I still think it’s fucking retarded. C’mon people. :smack:
Agreed. But human nature tends to flow towards the second rule of life - Never rule out stupidity.
It’s the reason places like the Straight Dope and Snopes exist, to help those of us that are skeptics.
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### Author:  [@Roadfood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roadfood)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2012, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bath-salts-and-real-bath-salts/625186/46 "2012-06-20T20:01:47Z")
> [@njtt](#):
>
> Actually, I too was quite confused by the stories about “Bath Salts” when they first started appearing in the media. :o
Yup, me also. Yet another example of a major failure of the news media. As a previous poster mentioned, it wouldn’t take more than an extra second to say “The drug called bath salts”. I did a bunch of googling before being able to find out that people were not using actual bath salts as drugs.
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### Author:  [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2012, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bath-salts-and-real-bath-salts/625186/47 "2012-06-21T20:19:54Z")
> [@Lumpy](#):
>
> Have you tried snorting Coke[sup]®[/sup]?
Yep, and I fail to see why it’s so popular to abuse. The carbonation really fucks up my sinuses.
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### Author:  [@deangel3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deangel3)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2012, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bath-salts-and-real-bath-salts/625186/48 "2012-06-27T07:14:24Z")
Now it seems the drug dealers are making their customers look like morons. Mixing bath salts and selling it as coke or meth. I mean if you cant trust your drug dealer who can you trust huh?
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### Author:  [@deangel3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deangel3)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2012, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bath-salts-and-real-bath-salts/625186/49 "2012-06-27T07:21:19Z")
> [@boytyperanma](#):
>
> I think it was an NPR story. The interested parties in the legal ‘bath salt’ products are pretty upset about the recent coverage and are reporting a significant drop in sales citing people’s fear they might experience effect attributed to the illegal drug ‘bath salts’
>
> It would appear based on their complaints they feel the news media has not been clear the drug and the product are different things and have no association beyond name.
>
> If this resulted in an increase in sales I doubt they’d be saying anything and would just be counting their good fortune selling additional product to wannabe drug addicts.
Drug dealers are now bagging up bath salts and selling to their used to wannabe but now are drug addicts. Representing it as cocain or meth we don’t realize we have been taken until it’s too late and dealer has our cash. Can’t trust anyone these days. LOL
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