Her face red and hot with tears, Lindsey Semple described Thursday how bath salts - the name for a new, potent designer drug - had derailed her life, cost her two jobs, drained her savings and nearly killed her.
"At work, I would be shaky and pale from staying up up to 72 hours straight," she told lawmakers at a State House hearing. "I got suicidal and very paranoid."
Although she described being "clean for about two months," Semple convulsed in tears when she described her family’s intervention to get her off of a drug that can be purchased legally in Massachusetts.
Semple’s testimony stirred members of the Committee on the Judiciary, whose chairman, Rep. Eugene O’Flaherty (D-Chelsea), promised to "expeditiously" consider legislation that would classify "bath salts" as a Class C narcotic. O’Flaherty noted a recent decision by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to classify bath salts as an illegal substance would provide guidance to states considering action on the issue.
"The federal government has given a clear indication that this has risen to a level where it needs some attention," O’Flaherty told the News Service after the hearing. "It certainly raises the bar here for us to act on it expeditiously."
O’Flaherty’s co-chair, Sen. Cynthia Creem (D-Newton), said, "It seems to me it’s something we really ought to be looking at."
In addition, a senator revealed that the committee he co-chairs is preparing to unveil legislation that would empower the state commissioner of public health to declare any substance a "public health hazard" and put it on a "schedule" of illegal substances until a permanent determination is made.
"Our concern beyond [bath salts] is, once this is made illegal, what’s next?" said Sen. John Keenan (D-Quincy), co-chair of the Committee on Mental Health and Substance Abuse. Keenan said other modern substances - "There’s salvia out there, K2, bath salts" - lend themselves to a rapid response from the Department of Public Health.
The bath salts bill (H 3739) was filed by Rep. George Ross, a freshman Republican from Attleboro, who testified that the drug has been "flying just under the radar" of policymakers while poison control centers have reported a sharp spike in overdoses as a result of the product.
"I was floored by the severity and extent of the abuse," said Ross, a former police commissioner, noting that the product had been banned in 26 states and Great Britain.
Although bath salts share a name with a harmless product that consumers use for therapeutic purposes, backers of the legislation say that the drug has no legitimate consumer purpose and has been mislabeled to appear benign.
Ross told the News Service after the hearing that he hopes his colleagues act on the bill before they recess for seven weeks on Nov. 16.
"There’s no reason, if the committee’s in agreement to move this thing out, to consider it for the whole body," he said. "Every moment we waste, every second we waste, there’s a chance that somebody else is going to become addicted to this stuff. If we wait throughout the holidays, people are going to forget about it. You’ve got to strike while the iron’s hot."
Supporters of the bill say bath salts, which are often sold as household products, produce similar effects as cocaine or methamphetamines when snorted. Its effects include hallucination and paranoia, and it can cause a sharp rise in body temperature.
Rep. Randy Hunt (R-Sandwich) read a letter from a constituent who described her daughter’s own descent into a bath salts addiction, noting that they were available for purchase "in a store on Main Street in Hyannis." Rep. Elizabeth Poirier (R-North Attleboro) joined Hunt and Ross in support of the legislation, which has 23 co-sponsors.
Several police chiefs also described their experience dealing with abusers of bath salts, and they noted that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration recently issued a temporary emergency order declaring bath salts a Class 1 drug.
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