Local Mom Wages Crusade Against Bath Salts

Not many families have had the courage to come forward and speak out against the sale of bath salts, K-2 and other legal "designer" drugs in local communities, but Michele Gubish has.

“We don’t want this stuff in our town,” the Hellertown resident stated adamantly in a recent interview.

At a Hellertown Borough Council meeting in early May, that were sold to her 22-year-old son, David Gubish, at the in Hellertown.

On June 1, Channel 69 News also aired a brief interview with Gubish, in which she said, “It makes me feel good when I know stores are not selling them. If there are stores that are still selling them, I get angry."

Since she began speaking out in what amounts to a grassroots campaign, Gubish has tried to raise awareness about the dangers of bath salt usage, and has even gone into local gas stations and convenience stores to plead with owners to cease the sale of these products.

“I have been told by the in Hellertown, 'we won’t stop selling them until it is illegal,'” she said. "Why would anyone want to do this to our community?"

A bath salts container Michele Gubish displayed is no more than an inch in diameter and perhaps ¾ of an inch high, resembling a lip balm jar. Its label read, “Concentrated Bath Salts, Energizing Tranquility...for an invigorating truly scentual experience.” 

The label lists no ingredients and no warnings--not even a “not for human consumption” label.

Gubish said that at this point, most store owners in Hellertown are aware of who she is because of her visits to their businesses.

“They won’t sell it to you or I. We aren’t the right age,” she said, implying that some stores appear to target bath salt sales toward certain age groups--within which her 22-year-old son fell.

After injecting bath salts into his arm on two occasions, David Gubish showed signs of being “anxious” and “manic talkative,” his mother recalled.

The site location of the injections became infected and David was subsequently hospitalized, but within a day his symptoms had progressed and the site wound showed signs of necrosis, she said.

As his body became septic from the infection, he was placed on a breathing machine and experienced both kidney and liver failure. 

For several days, Michele said she thought her son might die at any moment.

The Surgeon told her, "'We need to do another surgery to clean out the arm but we don’t know if he is strong enough to survive anesthesia,'" she recalled.

The circumstances were so dire, in fact, that she gathered her family, their pastor and friends for a vigil.

“It was like every scene from (the TV shows) Grey’s Anatomy or ER all at once.... There were tubes everywhere and he was yellow. Even his tears were yellow,” she said.

David Gubish ultimately survived the ordeal--which resulted in an 18-day hospitalization--but had to endure several surgeries on his arm that almost resulted in amputation.

“His arm will be a constant reminder of his choices,” Michele Gubish said.

By sharing her family’s ordeal, she said she hopes to educate the public and prevent others from making the choices her son did. She also hopes stores will voluntarily stop selling bath salts and similar products, even though they are not yet illegal in Pennsylvania.

“The scariest thing is that they don’t know the long term effects (of bath salts),” Gubish said. “The epidemic has no research because it is a new drug.”

She is fearful of the effects the drug may have on her son in the future, and added that she hopes he will make better choices.

For youth and young adults looking for an “extra strength high” from behind a convenience store counter, Gubish warned that simply because the products are currently legal does not mean they are safe.

“There is nothing safe about bath salts!” she exclaimed.  

For lawmakers, Gubish said she has another message: “Get these drugs out of our community!”

“I for one am willing to do WHATEVER it takes to ensure that ALL of our youth are protected from these substances!” she commented on Hellertown Patch after the story about her presentation before Borough Council appeared last month.

For now, that involves sharing her family’s story about the pain and suffering they have endured.