Silk Road forums
Discussion => Off topic => Topic started by: bynter on August 02, 2013, 08:57 pm
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This is something I've been thinking about, which is, why are "bath salts" called just such. It's actually a name that makes me angry, as it highlights the average person's ignorance of drugs, and the media's capitalization on that ignorance.
For starters, I don't get the umbrella title. Aside from analouges and maybe some really other obscure chemicals, "bath salts" almost always refer to either Mephedrone or MDPV/cathinones. Honestly, their not even that similar. MDPV feels like Ritalin, while Mephedrone is cloeser to amphetamine in effects, and hardly worse for your health than legal Adderall. And is it really that hard to say "Designer Stimulants"? I mean, that's actually an accurate term. Both MDPV and Mephedrone were basically never used ever as bath salts, and the guise was also pretty rare, as they were sold under many disguises and in several different preparations; ante-2010, you could just straight buy them as RCs. Hell, they weren't even always salts. Mephedrone and cathinones don't have to come in hydrochloride. They could often come as freebase or in sulfate. Besides that salt doesn't specify molecules that are "bath salts", salt could also refer to the 7238964873429246554 other drugs that exist in salt form.
Another thing I see as stupid about this whole thing is that the media makes it out like it's a huge problem. You know, "Parents, be wary! Your kids could be buying drugs legally online that are being sold under the pretense of 'bath salts'. It's as simple as a few clicks. Why hasn't the government done anything yet! People who take these are becoming insane! Look at this guy in Florida who took it and became a flesh eating zombie!". When in reality, while they started up around 2005, they really never got popular. It wasn't until 2011 until it exploded on the news, and that was pretty much AFTER Mephedrone and the entire cathinone class of drugs was made Schedule I/Class A pretty much everywhere. and like I said before, Mephedrone really isn't much worse than Adderall, and while high redoses of MDPV can induce psychosis, there have not been that many cases of that happening where people then go on crazy rampages. This is showcased by the fact that individual cases of MDPV-induced-psychosis-rampages make national headlines.
You know, writing this(or at least the first paragraph) also makes me think about something else that I don't get. On multiple occasions I've heard people condesdingly refer to meth as plural "methamphetamines". There is practically only ONE meth. I think there's like two analogues of meth, and theyre both really obscure. I suppose you could be referring to either HCl, Sulfate, or Freebase, but that really doesn't make a difference. Spare that, the only other criteria on which there could be multiple meth variants is the steroisomers, though I really don't think people saying "methamphetamines" have that in mind, and even then, levomethamphetamine is absolutely nothing like dextromethamph, the former being OTC and having effects more mild than pseudoephedrine.