Rehoboth police: Bath salts linked to erratic behavior

In July, a young man was arrested in Rehoboth Beach after a domestic dispute.

For Det. William Sullivan of the Rehoboth Beach Police Department, what stood out about the incident was the man's behavior.

"He was acting psychotic, delusional and paranoid, and making comments about the government and how everything was going to end," he said.

The man's mother told Sullivan her son was on the designer drug commonly known as bath salts. The man denied he was using bath salts and would not say where he got the drug he was on.

While he was in custody, Sullivan said, the man twitched and moved erratically. He had trouble focusing and rapidly changed topics.

Sullivan said bath salts are a white, crystal-like substance that can be made into a liquid and injected, snorted or heated and smoked as with crack cocaine. Bath salts are sold under a variety of names including Vanilla Sky, Eight Ballz and Ivory Wave. Sullivan said the drug speeds up the heart rate and produces a high similar to methamphetamine, inducing bizarre, delusional and agitated behavior. Sullivan said the July arrest was the only bath-salts incident he encountered this summer.

No one within Rehoboth city limits is visibly selling bath salts, although there is at least one shop in the area that does, under the name Eight Ballz for $30 a packet. The manager of the store said he has not seen anyone in the store showing signs of addiction or side effects. He said the salts act kind of like an energy drink.

The manager, who did not give his full name, said the shop doesn’t always sell bath salts but does get them in occasionally. He said people have been buying the salts but he hasn’t seen any problems related to their use.

Cannabis-like drugs more common

More common in this area is synthetic cannabis, most commonly sold under the names K2 or Spice. Sullivan said the mellow high from K2 is similar to marijuana but users could add things to K2 to make it more potent.

The Rehoboth-area store that sells bath salts is one of several others on Route 1 that sell Kloud, an herbal incense product similar to K2.

K2, Spice and other synthetic cannabis products became illegal in Delaware June 28, when Gov. Jack Markell signed House Bill 30, which added 17 varieties of synthetic cannabis to the state’s list of banned substances.

But Kloud is not on that list. It is made from damiana, an herbal supplement that has been used to treat headaches. Damiana can cause euphoria and also work as an aphrodisiac. A 2-ounce bag of damiana leaves is also available on Amazon.com; it is legal nationally.

The manager of a store in downtown Rehoboth that sells Kloud said the product, which costs $25 for a small tin and $45 for a larger tin, is smoked like marijuana but does not contain THC, the main active chemical in marijuana.

Kloud is flavored for taste, much like flavored tobacco. The store manager said the products are not sold to anyone under 18 and are not meant to be eaten or consumed. Kloud is not detectable on a drug test.

Sullivan said the store has given him Kloud to test to see if it contains any compounds banned under HB 30. He said city officials are looking into an ordinance banning bath salts, synthetic cannabis and related paraphernalia similar to an ordinance Ocean City, Md. passed Aug. 28. The manager confirmed that the police have been by his store to pick up tins for sampling.

He said his store has never sold crystallized bath salts, although he has had people requesting them who came off as very strange, as if they were high. He said the Kloud has sold well this summer, although he wasn’t optimistic he’d be selling it for much longer. He said he believes the state will ban Kloud.