Pubdate: Thu, 12 Jul 2012
Source: Daily Press (Victorville, CA)
Copyright: 2012 Freedom Communications, Inc.
Contact: http://www.vvdailypress.com/sections/contactus/
Website: http://www.vvdailypress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1061
Author: Lynnea Lombardo

ADELANTO FIRST LOCAL CITY TO BAN SYNTHETIC DRUGS

ADELANTO - When the mayor of Adelanto first learned about the dangers 
of synthetic drugs known popularly as "bath salts" and "spice," she 
knew she had to act quickly to ban the drugs from the city she holds 
close to her heart.

"I just couldn't sit idly by and let the DA or the Sheriff deal with 
it - not in my city," Mayor Cari Thomas said. "We're not going to be 
this drug-infested area that people think we are."

The City Council of Adelanto on Wednesday night voted to pass the 
ordinance unanimously, becoming the first city in the High Desert to 
prohibit the sale and distribution of certain intoxicating chemical 
compounds, which can be purchased by children as there is no age 
limit for the sale of the drugs.

Marketed to youth in brightly colored packaging, the synthetic drugs 
are labeled with names like "bath salts," "incense" and "spice," 
potentially leading consumers to think the drugs are harmless. 
Although California state law banned the recreational drugs in 
January, they are still widely available in smoke shops and in some 
liquor and adult stores.

"This ordinance takes things one step farther by insuring that the 
laws are maintained and enforced," Adelanto City Manager Jim Hart 
said. "This prohibits any type of synthetic compound in any store in the city."

Most recently, synthetic drugs made headlines when they spawned the 
so-called "zombie-apocalypse," after their amphetamine-like qualities 
were responsible for causing several extremely gruesome attacks in 
different locations across the country. The drug causes users to 
frequently exhibit violent and paranoid tendencies that have 
long-term, if not deadly, consequences that health care professionals 
are not quite sure how to treat.

"Because this is a whole new area, we don't know the full extent of 
the damage it does to the brain and the body. The effects haven't 
been fully investigated because of the lack of studies," said Regina 
Bell, a community member from the High Desert Community Coalition.

A grassroots community organization, HDCC has hosted workshops 
educating parents and youth about the dangers of the drug, which is 
still so new to the scene that it does not even show up on drug 
tests. Aggressive campaigns led by the HDCC and local law enforcement 
agencies have aimed to raise awareness of the dangers of the drug, 
having recently gone to 34 shops in the High Desert to ask that the 
shop owners stop selling it.

Bell says that the synthetic drugs have managed to stay on store 
shelves after they were banned by adopting the label "not for human 
consumption," allowing them to circumvent the laws that render them 
illegal. She adds that the sophisticated chemical make-up of the 
drugs also makes them technically legal, as new ones are created and 
sold before laws are enacted to ban their specific compositions.

"The proposed ordinance takes an approach that we believe will help 
make enforcement stronger, easier and more manageable in comparison 
to California's current ban on spice and bath salt sales," said Corie 
Lopez from the Institute for Public Strategies in Victorville.

Wednesday night's meeting coincided with President Barack Obama 
signing the Synthetic Drug Abuse Prevention Act of 2012 into law on 
Tuesday. This new piece of legislature, which was read aloud in its 
entirety by Thomas at the Adelanto council meeting, aims to bans the 
compounds commonly found in synthetic marijuana, synthetic stimulants 
and hallucinogens by placing them under Schedule I of the Controlled 
Substances Act. The Drug Enforcement Administration classifies 
Schedule 1 drugs as those that have a high potential for abuse and 
have no currently accepted medical use in the United States. 
Marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin are examples of 
Schedule 1 drugs.

"For the betterment of our residents and the betterment of our youth, 
this is a step in the right direction," Thomas said.

To learn more about synthetic drugs, the HDCC is holding an 
informational meeting open to the public at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday at 
the Hook Community Center, 14973 Joshua St. in Victorville.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom