Stateline: Faced with a mounting death and hospitalization toll, states are racing to pass laws to combat the latest synthetic drug. Last week, Delaware Governor Jack Markell signed a bill making permanent a fourth-month-old ban on “bath salts,” the common name for chemical compounds that mimic the potentially euphoric effects of meth or LSD.

The new menace is a powdery substance that users inject, snort or smoke. While not all users experience negative side effects, bath salts have been reported to cause extremely violent paranoia which has resulted in users shooting themselves or dying from spikes in temperature and cardiac arrest.

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