Pubdate: Sun, 29 Jul 2012
Source: Bemidji Pioneer (MN)
Copyright: 2012 Forum Communications Co.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/c267ikFs
Website: http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4739
Author: Don Davis

LAW EXPANDS ILLEGAL SYNTHETIC DRUGS

ST. PAUL - More synthetic drugs will be illegal under a law taking 
effect Wednesday, and a state agency will be able to act faster to 
make newly developed versions illegal.

Still, as makers of the so-called "designer drugs" continue to change 
chemical formulas to skirt the law, there will be lags between when a 
new drug is released and it is declared illegal.

State officials and law enforcement officers said Thursday that so 
much about the drugs known by names such as spice and 2C-E is not 
known, other than they threaten Minnesota's youth.

"No one knows what is in these compounds," Gov. Mark Dayton said 
during a ceremonial re-signing of a bill he approved in April.

"We don't know just how badly this affects our young people, our 
citizens," Sen. Scott Newman, R-Hutchinson, said.

Designer drugs are marketed as legal alternatives to illegal drugs 
such as marijuana.

Head shops in Duluth and Moorhead, in particular, have been in the 
spotlight for selling synthetic drugs. For the most part, what they 
have sold is legal because there was no law specifically outlawing 
the substance.

That began to change last year when the state Legislature passed a 
law that said any drugs that acts like an illegal drug also may be 
considered illegal. This year, lawmakers added 250 more chemical 
mixtures to the illegal list and upped the penalty for selling them 
to a felony, which could bring up to five years in prison.

Law enforcement officers hope the new state laws, combined with 
federal laws, slow the rapid development of new designer drugs.

"They are bringing this chess game to an end," Duluth Police Chief 
Gordon Ramsay said of lawmakers.

Many people avoid downtown Duluth, he said, because of problems 
associated with a shop called the Last Chance on Earth that sells 
synthetic drugs. He has permanently assigned a police officer to the 
area near the shop.

Federal authorities raided Last Chance on Wednesday.

Deaths of two young Minnesotans, from Park Rapids and Blaine, have 
been blamed on synthetic drugs, as has one in eastern North Dakota.

Five Minnesotans recently overdosed on a synthetic drug that does not 
fall under the new laws, said Director Frank Dolejsi of the Minnesota 
State Forensic Science Laboratory. However, he added, the new law 
allows the state Pharmacy Board to more quickly ban the drug.

The board still would need up to four months to make a newly designed 
drug illegal, board Executive Director Cody Wiberg said.

Under the existing law, it would mean a two or three month longer 
wait, he said.

Ramsay said there is no doubt there will be a gap between the time a 
new drug appears and when the state board can outlaw it. But new 
state and federal laws are better than ones they replace, he said.

According to Wiberg, Minnesotans using synthetic drugs do not know 
what they are getting.

"When they use these drugs, they are essentially doing a chemical 
form of Russian roulette," he said.
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