CLARK COUNTY, MO. -- People are finding a way to get high off of bath salts.
The salts have to have certain ingredients in them to get high.
Snorting, smoking or injecting bath salts that contain certain ingredients can give you hallucinations. There have been reports of people taking their own lives and the lives of others because they were high on bath salts.
"This can happen to anybody. It doesn't matter what walk of life you're from. Doesn't matter who you are," says Sandy Kleine.
Sandy Kleine knows that all to well. Her 22 year old daughter is currently in treatment.
"I'm afraid that damage has been done to her brain because of this," says Kleine.
Kleine's daughter wasn't acting like herself one night, and a family member had no choice but to call police. In a search of her purse, police found drug paraphernalia and an empty jar of bath salts she had bought locally.
"You can be the best parent in the world, but it's still out there and we need to make it a little less available," says Kleine.
"Right now one of the problems they're having...some of these cases, the only charges they can bring against these individuals is disturbing the peace," says Clark County Sheriff Paul Gaudette.
This problem is not widespread...yet. There have been only about 135 cases reported across the country, and already two of those cases are in Clark County. You can find small packets like this or jars of bath salts at novelty shops in the Tri-States. And they go by several nicknames.
"Vanilla Sky, Bliss, White Lightning, Scarface, Hurricane Charlie, Red Dove, and Ivory Wave," says Sheriff Gaudette.
There are at least 107 names for this product. Apparently you can lace the bath salts with other drugs like cocaine or methampmetamine...making them even more dangerous.
The state of Louisiana has outlawed these bath salts, and there is legislation in many other states - including Missouri - to ban it.
Some cities also are working on bans.
To see a related story from our sister station KRCG in Jefferson City, click here.
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