Mother knows ‘bath salts’ are lethal

Las Vegas resident Leslie Chaney hopes other mothers now won't experience the utter despair she has suffered because of her son's use of so-called "bath salts."

Her son Randy, 26, died Aug. 13 from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning because of his use of a synthetic drug whose effects are similar to crystal methamphetamine.

The coroner's office said Thursday that Randy Chaney, found dead in his car in a garage, had been using MDPV, or methylenedioxypryrovalerone, a synthetic compound sold in head shops and some convenience stores as a "bath salt" with the brand name Vanilla Sky. Found next to his body were two empty vials of the substance.

"I have seen what it does," said Leslie Chaney, who operates a private church school. "I want it to get out to the public how dangerous it is so this doesn't happen to another mother."

The Nevada Board of Pharmacy on Thursday approved an emergency regulation that banned MDPV and similar synthetic drugs in the state for 120 days. If the Legislative Commission, scheduled to meet Feb. 15, approves the regulation, then the prohibition will be permanent.

These drugs are known on the street as "bath salts," but they are not legitimate bath salts, or soaps or lotions put in baths.

The substances look like cleanser and are sold in small vials for $30 or more. Users generally snort or smoke the substances to get high.

Chaney said she did not know until after her son's death that he was using the drug. He weighed 300 pounds, and he told her he was using an over-the-counter weight reduction medication.

He lost 100 pounds within three months and then died, she said.

Chaney left behind two children.

"He started acting really weird," said Chaney of her son, who worked with her.

"He became psychotic. He told me the day after he got a paycheck that he had no money. He was using all his money to buy this stuff."

He was a good young man, she said. He wanted to be a youth minister. He might not have even known that he was taking MDPV and thought it was a legal weight reduction medication that worked, she said.

"A lot of kids may be taking it and they don't really know what they are taking," said Leslie Chaney.

Her daughter, Amanda Marquez, also is convinced her brother thought he was using a weight reduction aid, one that worked after years of diets that didn't work.

"He was so big that he always had to take double doses of medication," she said.

"That's what did him in. He took it, and it worked so he took double doses. Within three months of the first time he used it, he died."

Marquez said she noticed how aggressive her brother had become and thought he was using speed and yelled at him to stop.

But because he was losing weight, he was getting more attention from women and started staying out late.

"It is like using synthetic cocaine, heroin and acid mixed together," Marquez said. "It has hallucination effects. There have been cases of people seeing things on their bodies, cases of them running out in public naked. It is more dangerous than the real drugs. They don't know how to treat the synthetic stuff."

Both mother and sister know the head shop where Randy Chaney bought Vanilla Sky. They hope the synthetic drug is now gone from its shelves.

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.