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Law Enforcement Seeing More Designer Drugs In Northwest Wisconsin

Two Dealers Of So-Called 'Bath Salts' Recently Charged

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Methamphetamine labs and the health problems they pose have been a problem in northwestern Wisconsin for several years. But recently, drug dealers have been hawking a new designer drug imported from China that produces a similar high.


John Vaudreuil U.S. Attorney’s Office.

It’s called Alpha-PVP and is often called “bath salts” although, according to U.S. Attorney John Vaudreuil, it has nothing to do with taking a soak in the tub. His office just charged two men from Hayward with selling the drug.

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“These folks in this type of case seemingly were substituting it for methamphetamine,” said Vaudreuil.

Alpha-PVP was put on the federal list of controlled substances less than year ago. Vaudreuil said the drug has been around for the last six years but prosecuting dealers was complicated because it hadn’t yet been declared illegal.

“Prior to that you had to charge it as an analogue and to sentence somebody under this you had to figure it out what it’s substantially similar to in it’s chemical structure,” he explained.

Vaudreuil said it’s an issue prosecutors continue to face in controlling the sale of synthetic marijuana.