The number of high school students using synthetic psychoactive drugs like Bath Salts is significantly increasing, according to a new study published in The American Journal of Addiction.

The nationally representative study used date from Monitoring the Future (MTF), which is an annual study on the values, behaviors and attitudes of students in secondary school in the United States. The study uses students from over 130 public and private schools across the county.

Due to the fact that over 20,000 emergency room visits were caused by this drug in 2011, researchers were fully aware that it was a problem. However, they wanted to research the use of the drug in secondary school. They found that 1.1 percent of high school students had used the drug in the last 12 months. In this group of drug users, 33 percent only used once or twice in the last year. But 18 percent of the users used over 40 times in the last year. Researchers also saw a dramatic increase of usage between 2012 and 2013. In 2012, there was a 25 percent chance that teenagers would try the drug, and in 2013 this number jumped to 39 percent.

It is not surprising that high school students would try this drug because of its rising popularity. However, there are many dangers associated with bath salts and students should be educated on what harm it could cause.