BELFAST, Maine — With use of the illicit drug bath salts reaching epidemic levels in Bangor to the north and in Rockland to the south, Belfast public health and safety officials are worried.
“We’re starting to experience this in Waldo County,” said Vyvyenne Ritchie, the program administrator for Healthy Waldo County. “It’s very scary. It’s going to be worse if we don’t get the awareness out.”
That’s why her agency is teaming up with the Waldo County Sheriff’s Office to hold a forum on bath salts. The featured speaker is Sgt. Jim Greeley, drug recognition expert with the sheriff’s office, who will present information about signs and symptoms of bath salts ingestion to an audience that Ritchie hopes will include a lot of interested community members.
“We’re hoping to get a number of parents who may have some concerns,” she said.
Data recently released by the Northern New England Poison Control Center in Portland indicate that bath salts users are getting younger, with most in their 20s.
Police and hospitals across Maine have reported a sharp increase in the use of the synthetic stimulant. The poison control center reported receiving 87 calls about bath salts from Maine between January and July 2011, compared to just one call in 2010.
Ritchie said that people who use drugs often will try bath salts as an experiment without recognizing the consequences. She also said that community members might find it useful to learn what to do if they come across someone who might be using bath salts.
“If they recognize someone having strange behavior, don’t approach them, because it could be very dangerous,” she said.
Greeley is a “dynamic and knowledgeable” presenter, who has done many midcoast Maine forums, she said.
Another reason the agencies wanted to make sure they did the prevention program soon is a current state budget proposal that would eliminate funds for such programs.
“There are going to be increasing problems if there aren’t services in place,” Ritchie said. “With all the prevention programs being eliminated, I can see a dramatic increase in crime. All in all, I think it’s pretty devastating.”
The bath salts community forum will be held 6:30-8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26, at the Belfast Free Library at 106 High St. in Belfast. For information, call Healthy Waldo County at 930-6791.
“If they recognize someone having strange behavior, don’t approach them, because it could be very dangerous,” she said. This could be at any time in Belfast, especially in the co-op area.
Seriously, Bangor Daily News needs to stop publicizing this stuff. There is at least one article published daily by BDN giving it more exposure and fattening the drug dealers pockets.
I can’t believe they can sleep at night with this blood on their hands. They are ruining Bangor.
Who has “blood on their hands”? Get real. Seriously.
Do you work in the emergency room? I do. When you see the number of admits for bath salts that I do, you learn a lot about the users. I always ask them where they heard of it. Every single user I’ve talked to heard about it from “the news”.
Its not like the drug dealers put out out their own advertisements. BDN does it for them. Other parts of the country have stopped reporting on it, and guess what? People stop using it. Search BDN website for the term “bath salts”. Excessive, to say the least.
Stop reporting on this “news” and the problem will go away. This is yellow journalism with deadly results.
A useful link to a presentation from the Down East Emergency Medicine institute on
Bath Salts. History, Effects, Clinical Presentation and Treatment. For Police,
Fire, EMS, Physicians and nurses. Informational and feel free to share with
others
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAc6j0df4pE
Doc Bowie
The Bangor paper reported another death to baths salts. That makes a total of one! This is reefer madness all over again. The law inforcement agencies in Maine are realizing that pot will soon be legal. That proabition will be over. What then. How will the state control the madness. What they will do is create another chemical for the general public to be affraid of. This is not a note to advacate for legalization but rather a plead to people of this state to reavaluate how we deal with drug problems. Instead of making criminal out of our youth. Instead of making criminal out of our mentally ill. Instead of making criminals out of our emotional disturbed. Those that tend to gravitate towards illegal substances lets treat these problem conditions, as a medical condition. Instead of closing our mental hospitals lets use them to deal with substance abuse. Instead of expanding and privatizing our prison system lets train substance abuse counsilors to man recovery programs. Let treat these people like we would any other medical condition. Bath salts killed one person in the State of Maine is this justification for the monies being spent on law enforcement? The most abused substance in the country of Columbia is gasoline. This proves that a number of people are going to abuse one thing or another no matter how much law enforcement tries to control this type of what they call criminal actions. Take the crime out of this act of a sick individual. Treat this substance abuse as a medical condition and maybe the allure will subside. Instead of making salts the party drug of the month call it what it is. Just another medicine for sick people.