User shares nightmare of bath salts

ANDERSON, Ind. (WISH) - There is a new crackdown on retailers selling fake synthetic drugs called bath salts and spice in Indiana gas stations and convenience stores. The I-Team 8 investigation that prompted the new law now takes you inside through the eyes of a former user.

45-year-old Donna, an Anderson resident, said bath salts nearly killed her.

"The first time we did it my heart raced, I was nauseated and I got this huge high," she recalled.

Her son first bought them for her.

"I heard it was similar to cocaine. I thought it was legal because they are selling it at the gas station," she said.

When asked if legal implied safe, Donna said: "Yes. I figured it couldn't be any more harmful than a pack of cigarettes."

Anderson Police Department Chief Larry Crenshaw called it a "growing trend," so he and state Rep. Terri Austin launched a new collaboration. Every officer is undergoing mandatory training to recognize the conditions and effects of use of the synthetic substances.

He has also given information to schools, and the department is initiating undercover investigations.

"If our investigations yield someone selling this, it's our goal to prosecute," he said.

Our I-Team 8 hidden camera investigation in November prompted the tougher law after we showed how easy it was to buy from gas stations and convenience stores. Then we purchased again after the tougher law took effect in March.

"I would suggest it would only take a handful of instances where retailers are charged and suffered the effects of losing their retail license. If you think about that it shuts down their business for a year," said Austin, D-Anderson

Donna said Crystal Clean bath salts caused her to have a stroke. A few days later, the hallucinations were so bad she spent more than a week in the hospital.

"I saw fire trucks out back of our neighbor’s house, and I saw firemen on top of the house ripping the back of the house off," she recalled. It was so real to her, but the next day she saw it never happened. That's when she knew something was really wrong.

"It is crazy scary stuff and things I am afraid of coming after me, like zombies," she said.

That's when the paranoia kicks in. Nearly two months off the bath salts, she is still haunted by the hallucinations every day.

Crenshaw said bath salts had $1.3 million in sales last year. It is also blamed for more than 30 deaths in Indiana in the last year.