Kids Getting High with Meth-Substitute 'Bath' Salt

Published : Tuesday, 14 Dec 2010, 9:38 PM MST

PHOENIX - Parents have more to be worried about than the traditional drugs nowadays. As chemists get more and more inventive, kids are finding alternative ways to get high.

K2 or Spice will soon be illegal. The herbal incense gives users who smoke it a high similar to smoking pot.

But there is another product that gives kids a meth-like high -- and it's legal and easy to obtain.

Because of the potential dangers and unknown side effects of K2, federal authorities have stepped in to ban it. Soon synthetic marijuana won't be sold legally in its current form.

FOX 10 wanted to see how smoke shops are selling off their inventory, so we went inside with a hidden camera.

The pot-like product that mimics marijuana has been linked to a number of deaths in the U.S. One smoke shop customer told us the spice made him ill.

Another legal high comes from a certain kind of bath salt, meant to give a meth-like high. While it's labeled "not for human consumption," more and more people are consuming it. At least two deaths in the U.K. have been linked to snorting bath salt.

A bath salt in this smoke shop is selling for $50 a gram, which is about 70 times what you'd pay for soothing bath salts at a drug store.

The mystery of just what is in these products in the primary reason they're being scrutinized and in the case of the Spice, banned across the board.

But just as those ingredients are banned, manufacturers are working on new products using non-banned chemicals.

BIG INTERVIEW | Joining us for our live debate are Shelly Mowrey from Partnership for a Drug Free Arizona, and Jacob Sullum, Senior Editor of Reason magazine, who is in favor of the legalization of drugs.

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Kids Getting High with Meth-Substitute 'Bath' Salt

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