Photo courtesy DEA

Governor Bill Haslam’s latest update to the budget covers the cost of a bill that would make designer drugs illegal to make and sell. The legislation had been stopped cold because of the added cost to incarcerate more offenders.

Rep. Tony Shipley’s bill got a new lease on life when the governor’s latest budget included $250,000 to fund it. Shipley says the so-called “analogs” – sometimes packaged as bath salts or plant food – would become illegal because they affect the human body just like outlawed drugs.

“It’s a controlled substance look-a-like, synthetic. It performs physically on the body, some of the same things. There’s a cannabinoid substance, known as ‘Spice,’ acts like marijuana, about ten times stronger.”

Shipley says at least three bills having to do with imitation drugs are now back in play because of new funding.

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Usually senators present bills in Senate committees, but Shipley filled in as pinch hitter for Senator Mae Beavers and presented the bill in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Shipley got the bill back in play – now it goes to the Senate Finance Committee.

The House Finance Committee is scheduled to hear the bill Wednesday.

The bill, SB 3018 Beavers/HB 2175 Shipley, was estimated to cost almost a quarter of a million dollars to implement, due to increased costs of incarcerating more offenders.

That cost, not covered in the governor’s original budget, stopped the bill dead. No money to pay for it, no bill, under standard operating procedure in the General Assembly. But the governor’s latest budget amendment was extended to cover the costs of the designer drug bill.

Shipley says his bill, along with similar bills SB 2280 Faulk/HB 2286 Lundberg, and SB 2507 Tracy/ HB 2645 Ryan Williams, are all back in play following the governor’s budget update.

The bills do slightly different things – the Jim Tracy bill addresses Meth analogues, the Faulk bill addresses manufacturing and selling “imitation” controlled substances.

Observers expect the bills will be melded into one document to avoid confusion.