(Image source: AccessRx )



BY AUSTIN ALONZO



Days after a gruesome, cannibalistic attack in Miami that a homeless man in critical condition, officials are saying synthetic drugs sold as “bath salts” were to blame.

On Saturday police say Rudy Eugene, without any kind of apparent provocation, brutally attacked Robert Poppo on in view of a Miami Herald camera . The attack lasted more than 18 minutes, as the attacker chewed off most of Poppo’s face. Police shot and killed Eugene during the attack. Witness Robert Vega told WSVN Eugene behaved like a zombie from a horror movie.

“And the police officer climbed over the divider and got in front of him and several times and the guy just stood his head up like that with a piece of flesh in his mouth and just growled.”

Although officials originally believed LSD played a role in the grisly assault, ABC News reports officials now suspect “bath salts” an increasingly popular synthetic drug that mimics cocaine, LSD and amphetamines inspired the psychotic behavior. The President of Miami’s Fraternal Order of Police describes bath salts as a growing problem in the city.

“‘People taking off their clothes. People suddenly have super-human strength... They become violent and they are burning up for the inside. Their organs are reaching a level that most would die.”

The Daily Beast talked to Dr. Mark Ryan, who described the drug’s potential to cause chaos.

“...they’re extremely delusional. ... There have been murders associated with bath salts, a man cutting into his own body to take out wires he thought people had put in there.”

And according to CNN — reported use of bath salts has jumped from two cases in 2009, to more than 900 in 2011.

In February of last year, the National Institute of Drug Abuse declared bath salts an “emerging and dangerous product,” and last week the U.S. Senate approved a national ban on the component drugs that make up bath salts. But US News and World Reports says bath salt makers have ways to dodge the ban.

“Most commercial bath salts are made in India or China and can retail for as little as $40 a gram—less than half the price of cocaine. …. Paul Melton, an investigator with Florida's Pinellas County Justice Coordination, manufacturers can simply make a new compound that skirts the law.”