IREDELL COUNTY, NC (WBTV) - The Iredell County Sheriff's Office says a teen and two others are facing a string of charges after they were caught injecting bath salts into their arms.
According to Sheriff Phil Redmond, deputies were called out to the dead end portion of East Barkley Road on Saturday to conduct a security check. When deputies arrived, they would a vehicle with its lights turned on, trying to leave the road.
Deputies pulled the car over and noticed that the vehicle "had numerous items of drug paraphernalia inside."
That when deputies say 18-year-old Taylor Ryan Evans, 20-year-old Rudy Delacruz and 20-year-old Gregory David Evans, Junior told deputies they were injecting bath salts into their arms.
Deputies noted that the trip was "very nervous and seemed to be very impaired."
According to the Centers for Disease Control, poison control centers representing 45 states and the District of Columbia had reported receiving telephone calls related to "bath salts" in 2011. As of April, centers had already received five times more "bath salts" calls in 2011 than in all of 2010.
The CDC says people are smoking, snorting and injecting the bath salts as a way to get a 'legal high."
"Bath Salts [have] not yet become illegal, but [are] a very dangerous item that is being abused as a drug," Sheriff Redmond told WBTV.
The scientific name for the active compound in bath salts is methylenedioxypyrovalerone, a synthetic derived from a plant called a cathione. Once in the body, it delivers the effects of LSD, ecstasy and cocaine all in one.
"[People] crave for it and can't get away from it," Dr. Ben Gottschalk, the medical director at Wilmington Treatment Center told WECT in Wilmington. "I've seen people with marks all up their arms because they couldn't stop shooting it."
The salt alters the levels of neurotransmitters, or brain chemicals. Once the chemicals start to surge, users get a feeling of energy and empathy. If used repeatedly, the brain becomes depleted of neurotransmitters and a deep feeling of depression and paranoia sets in.
According to Dr. Gottschalk, these products are made in underground labs and manufacturers are constantly developing new designer drugs to stay ahead of law makers and drug regulators.
Deputies say they also found a marijuana pipe on Rudy Delacruz and a loaded Glock .40 caliber pistol inside the vehicle. Delacruz faces charges for carrying a concealed weapon, possession of drug paraphernalia, and allowing a unlicensed driver operate his vehicle.
Evans was charged with carrying a concealed weapon, and Evans was charged with driving while licensed revoked.
All three were released to a sober adult, deputies told WBTV, and not allowed to operate the vehicle.
