Doctors worrying about cheap bath salts

PHOENIX (AP) - Doctors in Arizona are concerned that smoke shops will try to unload their supplies of synthetic drugs packaged as bath salts at bargain prices before a temporary ban on the stimulants takes effect.

The Arizona Republic reports that more than a half-dozen metro Phoenix smoke shops that it contacted still carry the powdery substance. One smoke shop advertised a deal to buy one vial and get a second for 50 percent off through the end of September.

St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center psychiatry department chairman Jason Caplan says he worries that doctors will see a spike in bath salt use and sales until the federal government's ban on the three synthetic stimulants takes effect in the first week of October.