Bath salts, the new hallucinogenic designer drug, have been making the headlines as more and more crazed users attack people in their path while high on the drug. According to Zane Horowitz, MD of the Oregon Poison Center, bath salts are made by street chemists and could be laced with any ingredient, although most people claim the active ingredient to be methylenedioxypyrovalerone. They have been sold legally in convenience stores by simply marketing them as plant food and slapping a “not for human consumption” sticker on the side. While on the stimulant, users feel agitation, paranoia, hallucinations, chest pain, and even suicidality. It is no surprise then that users often become aggressive and hurt others while on the drug.

1. Rudy Eugene

   Rudy Eugene brought the public attention toward bath salts to life when he attacked a homeless man and chewed off the majority of his face. Eugene, 31, was almost certainly under the influence of bath salts when police caught him naked, with skin dangling from his lips, as he stood over Ronald Poppo’s body. Police yelled for Eugene to stop, but he simply looked up and growled at them. It took four gunshots to stop and kill Eugene. Eugene had chewed off 75% of Poppo’s face, leaving only his beard untouched. The attack had been entirely unprovoked, as Eugene found Poppo sleeping on an elevated train track.

 

2. Mark Thompson

   Nineteen-year-old Mark Thompson of South Charleston, West Virginia was arrested for kidnapping, raping, and killing a pygmy goat while dressed in lingerie. The goat’s name was Bailey and belonged to Lisa Powers, who got a call from a neighbor at 3:15 a.m. that her goat was spotted at Thompson’s house. Powers, along with her nephew and two friends, went over to Thompson’s house to retrieve the goat. After scanning the house for it, they knocked on Thompson’s bedroom door. The man replied from within, “Don’t come in, I’m naked,” but Powers opened the door and found Thompson covered in blood with his pants down. Thompson then ran out to the woods. The goat was dead in a pool of blood, with a wound in its neck, and lay next to a pornographic magazine. According to Lt. Sean Crosier, of the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office, Thompson had sexually assaulted Bailey before killing the goat. Police found Thompson in the woods wearing a woman’s bra and panties. He later admitted to being high on bath salts.

 

3. Ricky Dale Reed

   Thirty-three-year-old Ricky Dale Reed broke into a Biloxi home in August 2010 while high on bath salts and assaulted a man. He now faces 25 years in jail for that crime as well as breaking his probation. While high, Reed broke into the home, cut the man, and pleaded for the man to let him tend to his wounds. Police have noted that the erratic behavior seen in bath salt users is derived from the fact that users often suffer paranoia and hallucinations. This can cause them to make strange, nonsensical decisions and harm others as well as themselves. Although the court case is being addressed now, the incident occurred long before the Rudy Eugene incident, before bath salts began to pop up in news articles.

 

4. Shane Shuyler

   Shane Shuyler, 40, was reportedly under the influence of bath salts when he stripped naked and lay on a bench in a child’s playground. When a three-year-old girl walked into the park with her mother at her side, Shuyler got up, walked towards the child, and said, “Come here pretty girl, I wanna stick it in you.” His genitals were exposed to the child. The mother took her child and ran, reporting the event to the police, who spotted Shuyler in the park the following day. The entire scene took place in a park directly behind the local police station. Police found traces of bath salts in the man’s wallet, and upon further discussion with Shuyler, discovered he had originally stripped down naked to cool off in a nearby fountain. Many bath salt users take off their clothing because the drug makes them feel hot.

 

5. Carl Jacquneaux

   In Lafayette, Louisiana, 43-year-old Carl Jacquneaux was arrested for assaulting his neighbor, Todd Credeur. According to the police, Jacquneaux attacked Credeur over an unknown domestic issue while Credeur was working in his yard. Credeur tried to ward off Jacquneaux by spraying wasp poison at him. Jacquneaux then bit Credeur in the face, tearing out a large chunk of flesh. He then left Credeur’s house and entered another home, where he held a man at knifepoint and stole a handgun. Unsurprisingly, Jacquneaux’s attacks were preempted by his use of bath salts. A friend of Credeur’s told the police that Jacquneaux is a regular user of the drug. He was charged with aggravated burglary, battery, violation of probation, and violation of protective orders with a $312,500 bond.

 

6. Brandon De Leon

   Brandon De Leon, a 21-year-old homeless man in North Miami, was arrested after cops saw him arguing with a man outside of a Boston Market. De Leon was blocking the door to the restaurant — preventing customers from leaving — and cursed at the cops, prompting his arrest for disorderly conduct. Once in the patrol car, De Leon banged his head against the glass partition and repeatedly told the cops, “I’m going to eat you.” Likewise, he bit a police officer at the station while he was trying to take De Leon’s blood pressure. He also growled and snarled while in his cell. Cops found that not only was De Leon in possession of rum and Four Loko, but he was also under the influence of “Cloud 9,” a form of bath salts. Police had to put De Leon in leg restraints and a bite mask.

 

7. Pamela McCarthy

   Thirty-five-year-old Pamela McCarthy of Munnsville, New York was suspected of being on a bath salt bender when police responded to a call that she was beating her three-year-old son. Her neighbor, Heather Ames, heard the sound of McCarthy’s child crying and approached the woman, who had her son pinned to the ground while she beat him. An altercation occurred between McCarthy and Ames, in which McCarthy scratched the woman and grabbed her by the hair. Once she was able to get McCarthy to let go of her child, McCarthy stripped off all of her clothing, ran inside her home, and tried to retrieve her pit bull. She fell down the stairs in the process, hitting the concrete floor, but was able to get up and walk immediately after as though nothing had happened. As state troopers arrived, McCarthy was so combative that they had to taser her. Two men, a trooper and a fire fighter, were required to handcuff her. Once in the hospital, she underwent cardiac arrest and died. New York State Police Capt. Rodney Campbell told reporters, “She really was not coherent to what was occurring around her. She was not speaking clearly.”