New Types of Synthetic 'Cocaine' and 'Marijuana' Challenge Florida Lawmakers

New Types of Synthetic "Cocaine" and "Marijuana" Challenge Florida Lawmakers

By Kyle Munzenrieder Tue., Feb. 14 2012 at 2:03 PM

In the past few years, Florida lawmakers have passed laws banning synthetic compounds meant to mimic the effects of drugs like marijuana and cocaine, but chemists are staying one step ahead. In response to a law passed last year that outlawed a type of synthetic cocaine-like substance that was marketed as "bath salts," companies producing the product just slightly altered their formulations and began selling again. Now the state legislature is considering a law that would allow the state to stay ahead of the chemists.

Laws taking aim at the synthetic drugs haven't been too effective. Just last week CBS Miami found a synthetic form of cannabis being sold throughout South Florida as an incense. Synthetic "cocaine" sold as bath salts have also popped up back on the market.

"They're miles ahead. They're not just steps anymore," Chip Walls, a forensic toxicologist at the University of Miami, told the station. "Problem is, they're changing (ingredients) as fast as the government is putting them on a controlled substance list."

Today, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and several law enforcement officials announced their support of a bill that they believe would help the state stay ahead of the chemists.

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Clay Ingram, says that several reports in his home district of teenagers getting into trouble with the drugs made him move on the measure. Three high schoolers in Charlotte County were hospitalized after overdosing on the drugs and another was restrained after chasing his father around the house with a machete while hallucinating, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

"The highs they saw with the kids were different than what they had seen before," Ingram said today at a press conference.

The new bill would ban several more substances and combinations of substances that chemists could use to mimic the effects.

Follow Miami New Times on Facebook and Twitter @MiamiNewTimes.

We Recommend

Perpetua

you would have to be insane to do this stuff. but then again... the teenage brain isn't completely developed.

Lou

If natural things like cannabis were legal no one would be experimenting with these dangerous synthetics one more way that people are dying from mislead drug war. The cops and the dea might as well be gotv. Sponsered bullies preying on the weak in society to weak to stick to the legal choices. If this were a truly free country the govt wouldn't be concerned with what our citazens consune in the privacy of thier homes. Instead they should be focused on the few bad apples that cannot control themselves and their bad behavior because their are already laws against bad behavior such as stealing and violent behavior. This drug war is a failure and we the tax payer are throwing away 50 billion a year because the govt. Decided If you do drugs you belong in cage like an animal while the real animals like child molesters run free because of prison overcrowding its time to defund the dea stop believing their misinformation and remember they get a paid to lie to you because the lie protects thier jobs.

Paul Tammaro

Legalize, Tax and Regulate Cannabis, the most non toxic psychoactive plant on earth-NOBODY would ever think of consuming ANY of this garbage if Cannabis were available. Just ask anyone who has ever been to, or researched Amsterdam's "drug policy". There, nobody has ever hear of: ICE, Bath salts(except for bathing) Spice?, are you serious? a Cannabis substitute 30Times more dangerous than PCP, legal for ALL to buy and consume?STOP WASTING TIME PERSECUTING CANNABIS USERS AND GO AFTER THE REAL PROBLEM....LIKE THESE INSANE AND ARCHAIC DRUG LAWS WHICH PUT MORE DANGEROUS DRUGS IN THE HANDS OF PEOPLE WHO CANNOT IUSE THE NATURAL ALTERNATIVE..Great job, DEA. You've successfully created an even MORE dangerous market for this poison by scaring the stoners.I feel so much safer now...

Brian Pickell

If they would just realize the "War on Drugs" is the sole driving force behind these synthetic drugs are popping up. We wouldn't have a problem. Eliminate the war on drugs and these dangerous alternatives would disappear.