FARMINGTON — Emergency responders in western Maine are bracing for what they say will be the inevitable arrival of “bath salts,” a synthetic hallucinogenic drug that already has wreaked havoc in Bangor and other communities statewide.

And since the region has been all but spared by the growing drug epidemic, its public safety officials are looking for guidance from the communities that have been hit the hardest, according to Farmington police Deputy Chief Shane Cote.

“All we can do until we get some hands-on experience with it is to learn from those other communities,” Cote said.

Reports of highly unpredictable, aggressive and sometimes violent behavior by bath salts’ users first started showing up about a year ago in Bangor, where public safety officials scrambled to adapt to the new drug, which was still legal at the time, he said.

Law enforcement and public health agencies quickly regrouped, however, after the initial shock and new laws banned the sale of bath salts this year, Cote said.

They’ve started sharing emergency response techniques and building up networks to prepare other agencies better to handle dangerous situations tied to people using bath salts, Cote said.

In recent months, there has been a spike in public forums and training sessions in communities that are seeing the first signs of problems with bath salts, he said.

“It hasn’t caused problems here yet, and we’re hoping that it never happens; but we’re doing what we can to prepare for it,” Cote said of western Maine.

Recent reports of arrests and incidents have highlighted how bath salts slowly have spread across Maine, Cote said. He gave an example of the arrest of three people who face drug-trafficking charges after police in Waterville said they found 4 ounces of bath salts during a traffic stop last weekend.

Cote was among three speakers at a Nov. 18 forum on bath salts at Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington. About 100 people from law enforcement, emergency medical services and various health care fields attended the event.

He talked about legislation passed last month in Maine that increased the legal penalties tied to bath salts.

The new law increased violations from a civil penalty with a $350 fine to criminal charges that include time in prison and higher fines. It sets up criminal penalties for possession, trafficking and furnishing.

For example, possession is considered a class D crime for the first offense, which is punishable by up to 364 days in jail and a $2,000 fine.

Depending on the circumstances, trafficking can draw from 10 to 40 years in prison, with fines ranging from $20,000 to $50,000.

Cote said at least 34 states have banned bath salts and federal legislation is expected soon to address passing an emergency ban nationwide.

Another speaker at the forum was Karen Simone, a toxicologist at the Northern New England Poison Center.

Her center has responded to nearly 200 poisoning complaints tied to bath salts. Of that total, Maine, with 147 cases, has the biggest problem by far with the drug, when compared to New Hampshire with 35 cases and Vermont with 11, she said.

She described the complaints as covering a wide range of behavior among people who took bath salts. One incident, for example, involved a man who was attacking his mother with a machete because he thought she was a monster, Simone said.

Other examples included people cutting themselves, jumping off bridges and doing other things to hurt themselves, she said.

Another man on bath salts was arrested for driving erratically, telling police officers he was trying to “pick off pedestrians,” she said.

Within Maine, Penobscot County has the biggest problem, with 45 cases of bath salts poisonings. Knox County has the second-highest total, with 23 cases; while Kennebec County has the third-most, with 19 cases.

Dr. Kelly Klein spoke at the forum about the effects of bath salts. She gives presentations statewide based on her experience at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, where she works in the Department of Emergency Medicine, she said.

She characterized bath salts as mixing together the effects of a stimulant and hallucinogenic drug. People who take bath salts report going through several stages, ranging from euphoria and increased alertness to depression and psychotic episodes, she said.

The drug originally was sold legally at stores that sell drug paraphernalia, with names like “Vanilla Sky” and “Bolivian Bath” on the packages. The bath salts were sold legally because the packaging said not for human consumption, presenting the substance as a glass cleaner or some other chemical use, she said.

Most of the worst bath salts overdose cases, in which people attack others or hurt themselves, are tied to extended periods of using the drug. People will take repeated doses of the drug for days on end to avoid the negative effects, only to crash and suffer a severe psychotic episode, she said.

Bath salts users can have paranoid hallucinations and lash out at others violently and without warning, or become suicidal and try to hurt themselves, she said.

People have also reported the recurrent effects of bath salts, which include hallucinations long after the users have stopped taking the drug. Some people who had psychotic episodes months after they last took bath salts, she said.

Klein warned that several police officers and emergency medical technicians should respond to any incident tied to bath salts, regardless of the circumstances.

Bath salts, like many other drugs, can have a wide range of effects that make it unsafe for police and emergency responders, who are unable to help anyone if they get hurt, Klein said.

David Robinson – 861-9287

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