NEW GLASGOW, N.S. – A seizure of 2.7 kilograms of the illicit drug known as bath salts this week in Nova Scotia, turned out to be possibly the largest of its kind in Canada.
RCMP and New Glasgow Regional Police made the seizure at a Pictou County home on Wednesday evening, after a man was arrested during a traffic stop and alleged to be in possession of the drug.
The man and a woman, arrested at the Lyons Brook residence, are facing multiple charges.
According to New Glasgow Regional Police Const. Ken MacDonald, bath salts has a street value of about $150 per gram.
“In terms of the whole six pounds (2.7 kilograms), we estimate at $375,000 approximately in street value.”
Jordan Stewart, the 22-year-old man arrested this week, appeared in court Thursday afternoon. The 20-year-old woman was released from police custody on a promise to appear in court on March 25.
Bath salts began showing up prevalently in the area last spring, when health officials said four to five cases a week were showing up at Pictou County emergency rooms.
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“Unfortunately, I think Pictou County has been the epicentre and certainly it’s even probably the first place that it became prominent in Canada,” Greg Purvis, Director of Addiction Services for northern N.S., told Global News exclusively.
Purvis said bath salts is often described as “super coke” (cocaine) because of its effect on those who use it.
“It tends to last for a longer period of time than cocaine, for a similar amount of money spent,” he explained. “Unfortunately it has far more negative consequences.”
He said people who abuse the drug can experience delusions, psychosis, aggressiveness and a range of health concerns, such as hypothermia.
He said that’s because people sometimes take their clothes off when high on the drug.
Purvis said the Addictions Services clinic was seeing up to three people a week for detox, but that number has since stabilized.
But, the latest bust show the drug hasn’t gone away.
Five people were arrested in Pictou Landing and Eureka in October, for possession and possession for the purpose of trafficking of drugs including bath salts.
They were the first arrests, in Nova Scotia, under a new federal ban on Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDVP) – the key ingredient in bath salts.
Health Canada has since September listed MDVP as a Schedule 1 controlled substance, putting it in the same category as cocaine and heroin.
The designation made it illegal to possess, traffic, import or export the stimulant.
Two more people, a 32-year-old man from Sydney and a 29-year-old Stellarton woman, were arrested in Pictou on Dec. 3, for charges related to possession and trafficking of bath salts.
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