A few weeks ago, I had a research article published in Clinical Infectious Diseases, "Cardiac Infection and Sepsis in Three IV Bath Salts Drug Users". It detailed three cardiac infections seen in IV bath salts users over the previous summer in Syracuse. These patients were terribly sick and likely would have died if they had not been seen and treated as quickly as they were. All of them first were seen in local hospitals and then transferred to the Syracuse hospitals. Syracuse and the Upstate/Central NY area has had terrible issues with bath salts and other synthetic drugs in the past few years. There have been some horrifying incidents and families and individuals have been hurt. Meanwhile, a local "entrepreneur" managed to make a decent fortune off of this epidemic. He has since pleaded guilty to drug distribution.
Steuben County did not manage to escape this phenomenon. I hope that, with the shut-downs of the storefronts that were selling these chemicals, the tide has turned. Health care is about people taking care of others in their community, and, as someone training for a health care career, it is frustrating to see things like the bath salts retailers attempting to make money off these drug sales regardless of the suffering that it imposes on their customers and their communities.
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