'Bath salts' drug moves up on APD radar

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Austin police have reported five cases of people who said they are high on bath salts in just the past two weeks.

Drug detection expert John Bundick said at a news conference Thursday the drug has nothing to do with the crystals put in the bath tub. Instead, he said, it is a designer drug that causes reactions similar to PCP, cocaine and LSD.

"As with any other designer drug, we don't know who is making it or what they're putting into it," Bundick said. "So you could see a wide spectrum of reactions from the body."

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has banned three of the key ingredients in bath salts. One major danger, Bundick said, is that the drug is often sold in packets with 500 millgrams when the average dose is only 5 milligrams.

Experts say the effects of using bath salts include:

• Violent sometimes deadly outbursts by the user
• Chest pains close to heart attack
• Hallucinations, paranoia
• Hearing or imagining things like demons, monsters and aliens.

Last week, Austin police arrested a man they said was high on bath salts when he attacked an emergency medical services worker on Friday.

Giovanni Leask, 18, is charged with assault on a public servant after being accused of kicking an ambulance worker called to help someone who appeared to be under the influence of drugs.

Someone called police to report a verbally abusive man who had jumped off the Lamar Boulevard Bridge over Lady Bird Lake around 1:15 p.m. and then swam to the south shoreline and left the water.