Mother seeks help for son's synthetic drug addiction - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

With tears streaming down her face, Sherri Belttari says she fears what her son has fallen into. She says he is hooked on pep spice, bath salts, any number of synthetic drugs that are sold under a variety of names and are supposed to be illegal in Indiana.

"Nothing is working, ya know?" Sherri said. "I thought that stuff was not allowed to be sold and he's making trips every night." 

She said her son has found a store on the east side of Indianapolis that is still selling the drugs that lawmakers banned.  And every night, he makes the drive to that same store for that same high.

A couple weeks ago, Sherri said she went to the store and asked them to stop selling, "And, of course, got asked to leave."

Here is the problem:  Over the last two years, lawmakers banned dozens of chemical compounds found in bath salts, spice and other synthetic drugs. The manufacturers found loopholes in the law and continued to make and sell the drugs, just not out in the open.

A few weeks ago, Eyewitness News introduced you to Jacobi Cavaletto of Greenfield. He had just kicked a two-year bath salt habit. Cavaletto told us the very same story. There are certain convenience stores and gas stations still selling the drug and he says he could "walk into a gas station like you are buying a pack of cigarettes," and buy bath salts.

Belttari said her son started using bath salts and spice before lawmakers made them illegal. His friends, she said, are using, too, "All the kids that I know he hangs out with are doin' it."

The drug has its hooks in him, and she fears the road ahead for her son will be rough.