Pubdate: Fri, 15 Aug 2014
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2014 The Baltimore Sun Company
Contact:  http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Author: Erika Butler

HARFORD STILL TRYING TO ERADICATE 'SPICE'

A year after manufacturing lab raid, synthetic marijuana products
still sold over-the-counter

Synthetic marijuana, also known as "spice," can be easier to get than
cigarettes in Harford County, and while police last year broke up what
they say was a significant distribution ring, the intoxicant remains a
problem locally and is being treated by local law enforcement the same
as other illicit drugs.

"It's still out there. We've seen a lot of people's lives affected by
it," Capt. Lee Dunbar of the Harford County Sheriff's office said in a
recent interview. Dunbar also is head of the Harford County Task Force.

Last August, the Harford Task Force raided a property near Forest
Hill, where suspected synthetic marijuana was being produced in large
quantities.

No charges were ever filed in connection with the raid, however,
though police say the operation was effectively put out of business.

Some forms of spice are legal in Maryland, others are not, and therein
lies a problem confronting police and public health officials.

Often sold as incense that carries the label "not fit for human
consumption," the product is smoked by its users. Regardless of what
chemicals are used in its manufacture, spice produces a potentially
dangerous high, according to police and health officials.

Slippery legal status

Even before last summer's raid, law enforcement and public health
officials in Harford had expressed concerns about spice's growing use
and its slippery legal status.

Spice is made with vegetation, so it has organic components, but those
are in turn treated with chemicals, such as acetone or grain alcohol,
that produce a high when smoked. It burns hotter than tobacco and when
inhaled can attack the lungs and cause serious brain damage, according
to health officials.

The problem with synthetic marijuana, Dunbar said, is the
ever-changing list of components used to make it. Depending on which
components are used in its manufacture, a particular batch may or may
not be legal.

"What we need is our lawmakers to come down with a much broader law,
in which any and all chemical analogs are illegal," Dunbar said. "We
want it to be treated like marijuana, heroin, cocaine." Chemical
analogs are compounds whose molecular structures are similar, but vary
slightly from each other. Often they have related or similar properties.

A prime example of the changing nature of the chemical compounds is
the spice seizures in Forest Hill on Aug. 9, 2013.

The products police confiscated from an outbuilding on a property in
the 1600 block of Morse Road were made with chemical compounds that
were legal when they were seized, but had become illegal by the time
the products were tested by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and the
Maryland State Police, according to Dunbar.

"Which means, for us, it's tough, because we weren't able to charge
him," Dunbar said of the man who was living on the property but was
not the owner.

Dunbar said police of lost track of the manufacturer's whereabouts.
Because he was never charged in connection with the confiscated
materials, The Aegis is not naming him.

$2 million in product

Even though the 2013 raid did not result in any criminal charges,
Dunbar said police still consider the case a success "because we shut
down a multi-state distribution ring" that he says stretched as far
south as Florida.

Police seized thousands and thousands of various bags of synthetic
marijuana and all the equipment and materials used to make the
product. Police estimated at the time the haul had a street value of
about $2 million. All the materials have been destroyed, Dunbar said.

"He had all the packaging material, he had a lot of final product
ready for sale, he had the machines to pack it, stamp it, crimp it. He
had dryers, sifters," Dunbar explained. "He was producing thousands
upon thousands of various kinds of synthetic drugs, synthetic
marijuana, which is extremely dangerous."

The danger with spice, or any other synthetic drug, he said, is the
manufacturers are not licensed chemists.

"They're just coming up with different compounds they get from other
dealers" or other places, he said.

The raw materials are dried out on trays, then sprayed with the
various compounds, often with a spray bottle. The problem with that,
Dunbar said, is that the material in one corner of the tray could have
three times as much of the chemical on it as the material in the other
three corners, which could cause a significantly stronger reaction
than the less-treated materials.

July raids in Edgewood

Local police are treating synthetic drugs, included synthetic
marijuana, just like any other illegal drug that's out there, Dunbar
said.

Specifically, he referred to the July seizures of retail spice
products - including smoking materials and drug paraphernalia, such as
electronic scales and packaging material - during raids at the Mystic
Mart and Royal Lands, two convenience stores across the street from
each other on Hanson Road in Edgewood.

Between the two stores, police seized more than 40 packages of
synthetic marijuana totaling nearly 170 grams. The packages tested at
the scene were positive for illegal compounds and were then sent for
further testing, according to Dunbar, who said they are still waiting
on official lab results before making decisions about filing charges.

In the meantime, police have received information about several other
retailers distributing synthetic drugs in the county. "We are actively
working those investigations, and we will treat them the same as we
did Mystic Mart and Royal Lands," Dunbar said. "We'd like to get the
message out there to gas stations, convenience stores, to stop. And if
they don't, we will eventually be paying them a visit."

'Still pretty brazen'

The gas station and convenience store owners are playing a type of
Russian roulette when it comes to selling the synthetic drugs,
according to Dunbar, taking a chance the products contain analogs that
haven't been banned yet.

"They're hoping what they're selling is legal, but they don't know for
sure," Dunbar said. "It's still pretty brazen."

Synthetic drugs, he noted, are easier to get than cigarettes since
they don't require proof of age.

Police are trying to make it less attractive to sell spice by hitting
the businesses owners who do where it hurts, in their wallets, Dunbar
said.

"Our objective is to eradicate it so they don't sell it at all or so
the consequences of selling it are much higher than financial gain,"
he said.
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