CLAREMONT — Describing it as the “most disruptive drug in our community,” and a daily problem in Claremont and Newport, Sullivan County Attorney Marc Hathaway said the state’s recent decision to label bath salts as a controlled drug will give law enforcement authority to address the problem from a criminal perspective.
“We are here because this has become a big problem in our community and has supplanted opiates as the biggest threat,” Hathaway said at a news conference in city hall Monday attended by several police chiefs from Sullivan County and Assistant County Attorney Justin Hersh.
He said it is critically important to have bath salts, specifically “alpha-PHP,” classified as a controlled drug because the behaviors associated with it and the negative consequences of those behaviors could not be criminally addressed previously.
For reasons that are not clear, bath salts have become a serious problem in Sullivan County and lower Grafton County, Hathaway said.
“It is going to have a positive impact on the community,” Hathaway said about the controlled drug designation. “The sale of bath salts and the possession of bath salts is now a crime and we hope to drive people away from this behavior.”
Because bath salts possession and sale could not, until now, be prosecuted by his office, Hathaway said they don’t have statistics on the frequency of use.
Claremont Police Chief Mark Chase said the problem began to surface around 2016 when there was an upsurge of bath salts related illnesses in the city.
The chief said when his officers encounter someone who has used bath salts, they have to deal with people in an agitated state, exhibiting bizarre behavior. Those behaviors lead to family violence and other criminal activity, the chief said.
“In Sullivan County we seem to have a lot of calls,” he said. “We want to start doing something about it. We see so many social issues because of this.”
Hathaway credited Hersh with pushing the effort in Concord. The “scheduling” or designation of bath salts by the state Department of Health and Human Service as a controlled drug was done last week.
Hathaway and Newport Police Chief Jim Burroughs said the prosecution of criminal behavior associated with bath salts is one part of a multi-pronged approach that will also include treatment and counseling.
“We are working hard to eradicate this and make our county safer,” Burroughs said at the news conference.
Hathaway said penalties for possession of bath salts can be three and a half to seven and half years in prison and a $25,000 fine for the first conviction and seven and a half to 15 years and a $50,000 fine for the second offense. Possession with intent to sell would have the same potential sentences and fines of $100,000 and $200,000. Also, parolees can have as a condition of their release no possession of bath salts.
“We hope people see the risk and voluntarily seek out counseling or treatment or change their behavior,” Hathaway said. “Those who don’t change, the criminal justice system will respond.”
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
