CaptainAmerica
Bluelighter
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/wellness/129375483.html
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration announced Wednesday that it intends to use its emergency scheduling authority to ban three synthetic stimulants commonly found in recreational drugs sold as bath salts and plant food.
Widespread and growing sales of those and other synthetic drugs in head shops and on the Internet in the past two years have been linked to more than 20 deaths nationwide and thousands of calls to poison control centers.
The three stimulants are Mephedrone, 3,4 methlenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV) and Methylone, which have been found in products sold, usually as bath salts, under such names as Ivory Wave, Vanilla Sky and Bliss.
A laboratory hired by the Star Tribune found MDPV in numerous bath salts the newspaper bought over the summer as part of an investigation into exploding sales of previously unregulated synthetic drugs, which skirted food and drug regulations for a time by being labeled "not for human consumption."
The DEA said it published a notice Wednesday in the Federal Register to alert the public that in 30 days or more it will temporarily declare the three chemical compounds illegal.
The emergency temporary order would remain in effect for 12 months or more, with the possibility of a six-month extension. Meanwhile, the federal government would study whether to make the chemicals illegal permanently.
"This imminent action by the DEA demonstrates that there is no tolerance for those who manufacture, distribute or sell these drugs anywhere in the country, and those who do will be shut down, arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart said in a news release. Leonhart called the chemicals "a significant and growing threat to our nation."
The Star Tribune's investigation, which included tests of 30 substances bought in head shops and on the Internet, found chemical concentrations so varied that experts said users would have no way to determine a safe does of the substances in the products, most of which come without directions.

