Bath Salts Blamed for Deaths

Bath Salts Blamed For Deaths, Crimes

updated 3/22/2011 8:15:13 AM ET

HOUSTON — In the last six months, a rash of crimes and deaths have swept across the Southern states as the result of a street drug called bath salts, KPRC Local 2 reported Monday. The packets are sold over-the-counter at smoke stores and, in some states, at the counter in convenience stores.

Here's a look at six tragic events since November.

* Nov. 11, 2010, in Mandeville, La., 21-year-old Dickie Sanders first cut his throat and then later fatally shot himself. His parents, both doctors, said their son had taken bath salts.

* December 2010 in Tippah County, Miss., an officer was shot and killed while trying to resolve a domestic dispute with a man who authorities said had taken bath salts.

* December 2010 in Salina, Kan., Elijah Taylor, 21, a University of Kansas student was killed after running into traffic head-on into a moving car. Bath salt packets were found in his pocket.

* Jan. 17, in Panama City, Fla., a daughter tried to attack her sleeping mother with a machete before fleeing the scene. Police said she had spent several days taking bath salts.

* March 7, in Calvert City, Kan., a young mother thought to have taken bath salts was found walking on a highway after her 5-year-old was left lying in the street behind her with a severe head injury. An officer said she believed he was a demon.

* March in Scranton, Penn., Ryan Foley, 25, broke into a monastery and attacked a sleeping priest with a knife and wooden club before fleeing. He was later arrested and police said he was taking bath salts.

In addition, in Santa Fe, Texas a man took his own life after experiencing weeks of paranoia and hallucinations.

James Baldwin, of Dickinson, said it was using bath salts that led to his 31-year-old son to commit suicide.

"He wouldn't eat, wouldn't sleep wouldn't do nothing," Baldwin told Local 2. "He told me he was seeing federal officers who were going...