FARMINGTON — Sometimes called innocent-sounding names such as snow white, vanilla sky or ivory wave, the powerful stimulant/hallucinogen known as bath salts can be anything but harmless, officials told a gathering here recently.

Concerns about the growing number of incidents of people using the illegal drug  in Maine prompted medical personnel, law enforcement officials and others to gather Friday to learn more about it and how to deal with it.

Participants filled the Bass Room at Franklin Memorial Hospital for the program titled The Growing Bath Salts Epidemic. It was sponsored by Evergreen Behavioral Services.

Speakers included Dr. Kelly Klein of Eastern Maine Medical Center; Karen Simone, director of Northern New England Poison Control; and Farmington Police Department Deputy Chief Shane Cote. 

Calls to poison control centers about exposures to bath salts numbered 303 in 2010. That number jumped to more than 5,000 this year, Cote said.

“Four subjects have been treated at FMH, and in Farmington one driver was stopped for driving under the influence before the substance was made illegal,” Cote said. “There have been two incidents in Livermore Falls and Rumford has experienced several incidents, including use by a seventh-grader,” he said.

Police were unaware of the drug when they stopped the driver, Cote said.

It’s new here but it has a long history, Klein told the gathering. The drug was originally made in France in the 1920s and was seen in Europe in the late 2000s but not here until the last few years, she said.

It is a stimulant/hallucinogen similar to what was known as ecstasy or PCP. Marketed as plant food or bath salts, not for human consumption, small bags contain the crystal or white/brown powder that is chemically related to amphetamine.

Some users experience effects similar to ecstasy, euphoria, confidence, increased alertness and focus for long periods of time and productivity.

For others, the effects are “like a bad trip” with people experiencing depression, paranoia, anxiety, hallucinations, aggression, delusions of superhuman strength and an increase in body temperatures, Cote said. One user reported a temperature of 108 degrees, he said. Many users attempt to take their clothes off for relief.

The drug can cause strong cravings to use it despite harmful effects. It can also cause recurrent trips later, Klein said.

“It affects each person differently,” she said.

Some people taking the drug show “unbelievable strength and are undistracted by any type of pain, including broken bones,” according to Cote’s information.

The brain doesn’t register the pain of a broken limb, Klein said.

Officers and medical personnel were advised not to attempt care or treatment alone, because they can easily be overpowered. Users have damaged ambulances and hospital rooms.

Users can also exhibit “irrational physical behavior, take on fight-or-flight behavior, be hyperactive and have ‘bug eyes’ or basically look nuts,” according to Cote’s information.

Street names for the drug often indicate some type of cleaner or plant food.

“They like to call it cleaner a lot,” he said of names involving toy and jewelry cleaners.

In Bangor it’s known as monkey dust or monkey something else, he said.

The odd names are used to hide the product formerly sold in head shops or convenience stores next to the five-hour energy products, he said.

Some Internet sites provide access to what the presenters called a cheaper drug. An envelope on the street can sell for $25 to $50.

Cote said more education is needed so people know about the dangers of using bath salts, which is illegal in Maine and 34 other states.

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