Police officers could shut down stores that sell synthetic drugs under a proposal moving through the state legislature. The measure includes a “nuisance provision,” which could be used to close a business for 60 days if it is caught selling so-called “designer drugs.”
State Representative Jon Lundberg of Bristol says the chemically brewed-to-order substances are dangerous to first time users and are sold under false pretenses, like calling them “bath salts.”
“You know, I’m thinking of the bath salts you get at Wal-Mart, where you get a big bag of it, and I’m thinking, well, how can you make that illegal? This isn’t that.”
Lundberg wanted to find out first-hand just how easy it is to buy these drugs, so he went a store in his district.
“I said I’d like to buy some bath salts. They gave little air quotes and said, we don’t sell bath salts. We sell window cleaner. I said ok, I’d like to buy some window cleaner.”
Lundberg says he purchased a pencil eraser size of this so-called window cleaner for 20 dollars. He says he can buy a quart of real glass cleaner at the grocery store for about two dollars.
His bill was passed by a house subcommittee today.
Chelsea Kallman contributed to this report.
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“Designer drugs” are similar to already illegal substances, but are altered by as little as one molecule to outflank the definition of the outlawed substances.
The bill is HB 2286 Lundberg / SB 2280 Faulk.
It creates a Class E felony offense of manufacturing or selling an “imitation” drug which is chemically equivalent to a controlled substance, i.e., an illegal drug.
A similar bill by Representative Tony Shipley was also approved in the same Health & Human Resources Subcommittee.
Both bill are expected to be taken up by the full House Health Committee, but ordinarily in such cases two bills are combined – Lundberg says he has talked with Shipley and expects the two Republicans will work together to fine-tune whichever bill emerges.
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