People find new ways to get high off legal products everyday. The newest craze includes snorting something they call bath salts and smoking synthetic marijuana.
Last week, Jerry Rivers of Dillon County watched an episode of the Dr. Oz show last week on NewsChannel 15. It featured a man whose son killed himself while high on bath salts. Rivers says he had no idea it was available in his own backyard. Now, he can't stop thinking about it.
"That thing touched me, and my wife was watching it on another TV and she came in and she said, 'you know they're selling this down the street at a convenience store.' "
Rivers says he went on the internet to find out as much as he could about bath salts and synthetic marijuana. He even confronted the store owner. "He said that people in North Carolina are flocking in my store buying it because they're banned in North Carolina," adds Rivers.
Users aren't snorting the bath salts you can find at major retailers, they are getting high off a product sold in small packets at convenience stores. Synthetic marijuana is marketed as an incense at head shops.
Rivers has been talking to everyone he can about the legal substances, including law enforcement and local leaders.
"It's worrying me to death to know this is going on in my backyard and my law enforcement's hands are tied, so if we can give them the tools to do it with, our sheriff has promised it will be taken care of immediately," says Rivers.
Health officials say using these products can have serious side effects from heart palpitations, disassociation, and even psychosis.
Rivers hopes others will join him in his fight to make these substances illegal, especially since he has a teenage daughter. "What happens if she rides home one day with one of these guys and he says I know where we can get a joint, let's go buy it? Well maybe they won't make it home."
Until bath salts and synthetic marijuana become illegal Rivers suggests the community not support stores that sell them.
Wednesday afternoon, he met with Dillon County Council to urge them to pass a local ordinance banning the sale of bath salts and synthetic marijuana.
Rivers is not alone in his fight. A local group formed a Facebook page dedicated to banning the sale of bath salts in the Pee Dee.
