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October 2, 2011 in City
Man found dead in river was getting high on ‘bath salts’
A 31-year-old man found dead in the Spokane River last month had psychological problems that were aggravated by his addiction to a hallucinogenic drug sold as “bath salts,” his family says.
For months, Christopher Don Rogers had been in what family described as a downward spiral. He left a mental health facility in Portland against the advice of doctors and returned to Spokane, where he experienced drug-induced delusions that prompted him to call the police. He ended up at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center this summer – delusional and dehydrated from hours of running around barefoot in downtown Spokane high on bath salts, a synthetic drug that is banned in Washington and Idaho.
A month later, on Sept. 17, Rogers was to visit his girlfriend when he apparently decided to have one last fix, said Victoria Gibson, 62, a longtime family friend.
“Bath salts made him feel like superman, but he was acting like a maniac,” Gibson said.
His body was pulled from the Spokane River the next morning.
He’d spent the previous day at the Spokane County Interstate Fair with his girlfriend and her two children. He planned to go to her home in Rathdrum that night, but family suspect he experienced psychosis after taking the hallucinogen and may have run into the river.
The Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office has not determined his cause of death, an employee said Friday. Toxicology reports are pending.
Gibson describes a long history of attempts to help Rogers that she believes were hindered by a lack of continuity in mental health services, a lack of follow-up by professionals and psychological problems Rogers couldn’t seem to overcome.
“Of course Chris had a choice when he decided to use drugs,” Gibson said. “He made an awful choice. One I know he regretted. He wanted help.”
Gibson is hoping to help organize a better network for dealing with mental health issues in Spokane and for extensive training for all law enforcement on mental health issues. She’s also hoping to help educate people about the dangers of the hallucinogenic substance advertised as bath salts – a drug his family was unaware existed until Rogers began using it.
“He was doing really good there for a while,” said his uncle, C.J. Mayer. But “he just got into them and he just kept saying, ‘Oh there’s nothing wrong with these.’ ”
Some states have no penalties for the drug, but they are outlawed in Idaho and banned in Washington by the state’s Board of Pharmacy.
“It’s like anything else – the numbers have gone down but we know it’s still (being sold),” said Jim Williams, executive director of the Washington Poison Center, which recommended the state board implement the ban.
“This is the worst thing I’ve ever seen, just bar none,” Williams said of bath salts. “When things go sideways with this product, they really go sideways, with really, really tragic consequences.”
The hallucinogenic substance emerged in Washington this year; reports of problems with the drug from the East Coast began surfacing in early 2010.
The drug brings a bevy of side effects that include severe paranoia.
“We are aware of numerous situations where people have committed suicide, even after they had originally thought the drug was out of their system,” said Williams, who had just returned from a national conference where the drug was discussed.
He said Rogers’ experience of increased paranoia is a common one.
Bath salts have caused a big uptick in calls to poison control centers nationwide, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune: Last year, centers received about 300 calls on the synthetic drug. Already this year, they’ve logged more than 4,700.
“We’re trying to get the word out there, but we’re running up against a stone wall in some places,” Williams said. “The people who use these are not typically looking at your traditional forms of media.”
Gibson hadn’t heard from Rogers in three weeks when she learned of his death. She’d seen him earlier in the summer when he was high on drugs and called police to his apartment because he thought it was infested with bugs. Spokane Police officers, accompanied by a Spokane Mental Health employee, were able to coax him into protective custody. Gibson visited him in the hospital weeks later, after police found him running around downtown. He stayed in the hospital for five days, near death because of dehydration and kidney failure.
Rogers served four years in prison for a drug charge that involved a firearm enhancement, but Gibson said Rogers was able to find work and had good recommendations from past employers. He was interested in the medical field after getting a job removing dead bodies in the Spokane area.
“He didn’t make fun of the job. He didn’t make creepy jokes about it,” Gibson said.
But it didn’t last. His mental health problems, coupled with his drug problem, cost him the job. He had one last contact with his friends and former co-workers – they pulled him from the river on Sept. 18 after an employee at the Red Lion Hotel at the Park discovered his body.
“That just sort of closed the circle of all the people who cared about Chris,” Gibson said.
Human trafficking suspects released 
aintbuyinit on October 02 at 6:33 a.m.
With every other commercial on TV and in periodicals a pharmaceutical company rejoicing over the miracle of there new drug that this has become a staple for the stressed and vulnerable? Time to put a stop to “drugs are the answer” campaigns.
frankie1eye on October 02 at 9:39 p.m.
Chris was my son and his aunt Wende Rogers who is shacked up with a guy named CJ Mayer (so not the uncle as claimed) and Chris’s landlord Victoria Gibson who is a friend of Wende’s had NO right to speak to reporters about my son or provide any personal information which is protected under HIPPA. From what I can see is these 3 wanted to get their names in print at the expense of my son and I am NOT happy at all. Most of what they said was not true but what I will say is these three did everything possible to keep my son and his problems from his real family, as in NEXT OF KIN, so they could feel ever so important. It is my understanding that Wende and Victoria both pretend to work in the medical field so this article is very disturbing to say the least.
thismanssister on October 02 at 10:01 p.m.
CJ is not our uncle, but only a boyfriend. Victoria was his landlord, who rented him a room in a basement, in a run down home that should have been condemned long ago. A place that Chris didn’t even live, but only stored his belongings. To say that this article is distasteful and disgusting is an understatement. If it was intended to educate the community on the danger of the drugs that *MAY* be involved, it clearly was a failure. What I read was my brother’s name surrounded by inaccurate quotes from people who now want credit for knowing there was a problem, but refused to acknowledge this problem when he was alive. And then the mention of private medical records that his next of kin have been told are protected by hippa, even after death………..
frankie1eye on October 02 at 10:47 p.m.
I should have stated my son had TWO sisters and a mother all living in different states, so we were involved with what was going on from a distance, but these wannna bes didn’t want us knowing anything, even told docs not to talk to us, only talk to them, I assume now so they could drag my son’s ashes through the mud even more.
Just today, my son’s friends in Asotin had a Memorial in Hells Gate and Wende and CJ showed up and never said a word about the article written on their behalf. An article full of so many untrue statements its shocking. The things stated in this article, has hurt this mother and two sisters more than you could possibly know. CJ did tell me the ME refused to give him a copy of my son’s Autopsy report.because he is not next of kin. Now why in GOD’s name would this guy think he should have this information? The jerk could not stand my son and said horrible things about him in life yet now he is pretending to care and wants my son’s final records so he can show even more people? I PRAY the ME won’t allow Wende to have access to the report either. I will do whatever necessary to stop this from happening. After what they just did, no telling what they would do to further damage my son’s memory and to hurt his sister’s and mother even more.
The basement apt. my son’s sister mentioned was a dungeon from the day my son moved in. City of Spokane didn’t seem to care at all about SLUM LORDs when I called to complain. Should be a law about this.
My son was a good man who was loved very much by many people, but apparently not by the “family” who pretended to love him. Shame on you.
misjustice on October 03 at 10:09 a.m.
So sad, my condolences are extended to this young man’s immediate family and friends. No parent should have to endure the tragic loss of their child.
frankie1eye on October 03 at 3:27 p.m.
Today, 1 day after this horrible article was printed, I have heard from several of my son’s friends and co-workers. Some heard from their bosses past and present who were upset by these lies. These lies are spread all over the world online, which is very upsetting by people claiming to care about Chris, with others blasting him publicly and releasing medical information protected by federal law. Really makes one wonder just how mentally stable these three are to do such a horrible thing to my son. I hope all three get the mental help they need and leave my son and his name alone and allow me in PEACE to finish cleaning up the mess they helped create. Wende and CJ your snake oil Zango mangosteen juice didn’t help anyone at all, and certainly not my son. Detox? Give me a break….