Bath salts laced with ingredient 10 times stronger than cocaine

Scientists have discovered the shocking strength of a key ingredient in lethal bath salts that leaves users struggling with the after effects for days.

MDPV, commonly found in the street drug is ten times stronger than cocaine, according to the National Science Foundation.

It causes users to become paranoid, violent and agitated, at times leading to hallucinations.

"They''re selling time bombs," Louisiana Poison Control Center Director Dr. Mark Ryan told ABC News.

"We''ve had some people show up who are complaining of chest pains so severe that they think they''re having a heart attack. They think they''re dying.

"They have extreme paranoia. They''re having hallucinations. They see things, they hear things, monsters, demons, aliens.''

Ryan noticed that upon snorting the powder, labelled with names including Hurricane Charlie, NOLA Diamond and Bayou Ivory Flower, users all suffered repetitive psychotic episodes.

"Some patients were in the hospital for 5 days, 10 days, 14 days," Ryan said.

"In some cases, they were under heavy sedation. As you try to taper off the sedation, the paranoia came back and the delusions."

"MDPV is irreversible, it won''t let go," his colleague Louise De Felice said.

"I don''t know of any other drug that has that same feature of not allowing you to escape from it."

Scientists ran tests to try to determine the drug''s chemistry, finding it to be laced with MDPV, ten times the potency of cocaine.

The dangerous combination of the drug''s ingredients ''flood the brain,'' they said, leading to repeated episodes of psychotic behaviour.

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