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Columbus Dispatch...
Ohio
bill would ban synthetic drugs
yet to be developed
Legislation to criminalize ‘Spice,’
bath salts is sent to Kasich
By Ben Geier
Friday,
July 1, 2011
Enterprising
chemists may soon lose
their ability to turn a profit with synthetic drugs - even those they
haven’t
created yet.
The
General Assembly has sent a bill
to Gov. John Kasich that would ban a synthetic version of marijuana
known as
“Spice” or “K2,” as well as chemicals in products marketed as bath
salts that
some say have effects similar to PCP or LSD.
The
synthetic substances, which have
been legally and cheaply sold in stores including gas stations and head
shops,
have caused a rise nationally and in Ohio of people suffering seizures,
hallucinations, paranoia, delusions, rapid heartbeat, labored breathing
and
even death. By April, at least nine U.S. deaths had been attributed to
the
substances in the past year.
K2
and Spice had been banned in 10
states as of early this year, but officials noticed that manufacturers
were
quick to crank out new formulas to replace the old ones.
That’s
where Ohio’s legislation is
forward-looking.
After
consultation with the Ohio
attorney general’s office, the Senate added an amendment known as a
drug analog
that would make illegal any substance similar to Spice or the bath
salts that
is created after the bill is signed.
“American
ingenuity doesn’t stop when
we leave here today,” said Sen. Timothy J. Grendell, R-Chesterland,
chairman of
the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, which created the amendment.
“There will
be those out there who will continue to try to find ways to create
alternate
substances.”
Grendell
said the drug analog will
save future legislatures from having to pass similar bills.
Scott
Corbitt, policy and legislative
director for the attorney general’s office, said the law is based on a
similar
federal statute. Corbitt said its constitutionality has been upheld by
numerous
courts.
The
penalties for selling or
possessing the synthetic substances will be the same as for marijuana.
Under
the amendment, if a substance is of a similar chemical structure and
has a
similar effect - or is marketed to have a similar effect - as a current
Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 drug, the new substance automatically is
classified as
a Schedule 1 drug, just as marijuana and Ecstasy are.
“This
will just help law enforcement
and prosecutors and will help save people’s lives,” Corbitt said.
Terry
Lyons, chairman of the Buckeye
State Sheriffs’ Association, said law enforcement would welcome the law.
“There
are a lot of sheriffs who are
very anxious, who have almost a pandemic problem in their counties,” he
said
The
first version of the bill was
proposed by Reps. Margaret Ann Ruhl, R-Mount Vernon, and Dave Burke,
R-Marysville. The Senate later added the bath-salt restrictions. The
bath salts
go by such names as Purple Wave and Bliss.
Spice
originally was developed to
simulate marijuana in medical tests. It is commonly sprayed onto dried
herbs
and smoked like a cigarette.
Read
it at the Columbus Dispatch
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