‘Bath Salts’ Give Way to ‘Gravel’ as Drug that Can Provoke Violence

With bans in place on many of the chemical ingredients used in so-called “bath salts,” manufacturers of synthetic drugs have shifted to a type whose street name is “gravel.”

Bath salts is a term used to describe MDPV, methylone and mephedrone — drugs whose effects are similar to those of amphetamine and cocaine. The drug is called bath salts because it resembles epsom salt or other chemicals put in bath water.

Samples of “gravel” (it’s called that because it looks like gravel) studied by the Research Triangle Institute and the Designer Drug Research Unit at the National Institutes of Health contained a chemical known as α-PVP, which the RTI/NIH study said produced “impressive degrees of paranoia.” Some samples also contained methamphetamine (“crystal”) or clonazepam, a sedative marketed as Klonopin in the United States.

The studies, conducted on rats and not people, showed “gravel” may “pose risk for addiction and adverse effects in human users.”

A federal government website with information about drug abuse by teenagers says “the synthetic cathinones in bath salts can produce feelings of joy and increased sociability and sex drive. But some people who abuse bath salts experience paranoia, agitation, and hallucinations; some even lose contact with reality and act violently. Deaths have been reported in several cases.”