There are many new psychoactive substances (NPS) flooding the United States, especially synthetic marijuana (usually referred to as Spice or K2) and synthetic cathinones (often known as bath salts). These new synthetic drugs are extremely dangerous because they are chemically similar to the substances they mimic, but different enough to be technically legal in many places, including in several states. They are completely untested and unregulated, so side effects can be unpredictable and extremely harmful. Dosing the drug can be nearly impossible.
Synthetic cathinones like bath salts are some of the most harmful drugs created and abused in recent years. One version of a synthetic cathinone, called methylone, was found to be so harmful that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) put the substance in Schedule I just a few years after it appeared in the US. Methylone is one of the most addictive versions of a synthetic cathinone spreading across the world, so it is important to know what happens to a person when the drug is abused and how abuse of methylone is being treated.