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Sunday, June 03, 2012

Zombie Apocalypse: Bath Salts Investigated by Congress as CDC Denies Zombies Exist

original post from: http://www.policymic.com/articles/9152/zombie-attack-bath-salts-investigated-by-congress-as-cdc-denies-zombies-exist

Zombie Apocalypse: 

Bath Salts Investigated by Congress as CDC Denies Zombies Exist

by Alex Marin





As fears of a possible “Zombie Apocalypse” grow by the minute in light of increasingly gruesome reports of cannibalism, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention has been forced to intervene in order to preserve whatever is left of our collective sanity.

“CDC does not know of a virus or condition that would reanimate the dead (or one that would present zombie-like symptoms),” CDC spokesman David Daigle said on Thursday, after a string of strange incidents involving seemingly non-human behavior over the last week.

In Miami, police shot a naked man after he ate the face of another man on the side of a highway. In Maryland, a college student told investigators he ate the heart and brain of a dismembered body found in his home.

In Hackensack, a man stabbed himself and threw pieces of his intestines at police. And in Canada, police are searching for a gay porn actor who allegedly killed a young man with an ice pick, dismembered the body and then raped and ate flesh from the corpse.

And now even Congress has weighed in. The Miami cannibal attack may, if lawmakers have their way, be the final straw in the fight to making sure synthetic drugs such as bath salts and synthetic marijuana are classed alongside heroin and LSD.

"Looking at the Miami incident, we've seen people do some very bizarre acts on bath salts," says Florida Republican Rep. Sandy Adams, who helped push the Combating Dangerous Synthetic Stimulants Act of 2011 through the House last December. The bill would federally ban MDPV and mephedrone, two chemicals found in "bath salts," and dozens of other chemicals found in synthetic drugs.

Last week, the Senate passed a Food and Drug Administration bill that would ban many of the same chemicals. But so far, both houses haven't been able to pass an identical bill. The hang ups have been deciding exactly which chemicals to ban, and determining if there should be "mandatory minimum" sentences for synthetic drug traffickers.

Zombie Apocalypse - Cannibal Attack - Bath Salts






It's the "zombie apocalypse" that everyone is talking about—including Congress. The Miami cannibal attack may, if lawmakers have their way, be the final straw in the fight to making sure synthetic drugs such as bath salts and synthetic marijuana are classed alongside heroin and LSD.

"Looking at the Miami incident, we've seen people do some very bizarre acts on bath salts," says Florida Republican Rep. Sandy Adams, who helped push the Combating Dangerous Synthetic Stimulants Act of 2011 through the House last December. The bill would federally ban MDPV and mephedrone, two chemicals found in "bath salts," and dozens of other chemicals found in synthetic drugs.

[Maryland Man Arrested After Killing, Eating Roommate]

Last week, the Senate passed a Food and Drug Administration bill that would ban many of the same chemicals. But so far, both houses haven't been able to pass an identical bill. The hang ups have been deciding exactly which chemicals to ban, and determining if there should be "mandatory minimum" sentences for synthetic drug traffickers.

Adams, who spent time working in the Orange County, Fla. Sheriff's office before going into politics, was imperative in getting Florida to ban synthetic drugs earlier this year. She says that hopefully the Miami incident will be the wake-up call Congress needs to get something done.

"I think that now we have to come together with the Senate and resolve whatever differences we have," she says. "We need to put a law in place that helps stop the sale and distribution of something this dangerous."

Maine Senator Susan Collins was a cosponsor of the Senate bill that recently passed. In a statement, she said Congress "cannot afford to wait to address this problem any longer."

[What are Bath Salts?]

"The longer Congress goes without enacting a permanent ban on these chemicals, the more our citizens are put at senseless risk," she says.

Many, but not all, states have taken recent measures to ban the drugs. While the Drug Enforcement Agency took emergency measures last year to make many synthetic drugs illegal, manufacturers can simply alter the chemical makeup to skirt the ban.

According to one bath salt manufacturer's website, certain products marketed as bath salts are banned in all states, others in 20 states, while some still enjoy complete legality, depending on the product's chemical makeup.

State bans can help local law enforcement prosecute synthetic drug dealers, manufacturers, and users, according to Adam Myrick, a spokesperson with the South Carolina Department of Health & Environmental Control, which played a part in banning synthetic drugs earlier this year.

"We echoed the action that had been taken by [the DEA]," Myrick says. "That state designation enables state and local law enforcement to make arrests that otherwise could only be done by federal agents."

A federal ban would also make transporting the drugs across state lines illegal. While Florida has a ban on many synthetic drugs, Adams says it used to be easy to drive to Alabama, where bath salts could, until recently, be purchased in convenience stores.

"If you do a federal ban, you won't be buying them online, if you live in Tallahassee, you won't be able to drive to Alabama or Georgia [and buy them]," she says.

Although the Miami incident served as a painful reminder of the dangers of bath salts and other synthetic drugs, Adams says it's certainly not the first time a psychotic episode has been attributed to the substances.

"These chemicals cause really severe reactions—a lot of them are violent…This is not an isolated incident, these are real things that are happening all the time." she says. "It's something we need to get focused on and get resolved."

Jason Koebler is a science and technology reporter for U.S. News & World Report. You can fol

low him on Twitter or reach him at jkoebler@usnews.com
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