Bondi
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Legal Newsline) - Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi spoke to legislators on Tuesday, pushing a new bill that would ban a new list of synthetic drugs.
Since July 1, law enforcement officers in Florida have made close to 1,000 arrests in conjunction with synthetic drugs after lawmakers instituted a ban of compounds sold as bath salts, Sunshine State News reports.
While the Senate Bill, SB1502, has cleared the criminal justice committee, the House version, HB1175, has not yet been heard in committee.
Since the bill was passed, new formulas have been created by making slight changes to the molecules in an effort to skirt the law. Packaging has also been redesigned and has added phrases like "not for human consumption" to ward off detection.
"We will not allow chemists who are altering the components of these dangerous synthetic drugs to circumvent state law," Bondi said. "They think they can stay one step ahead of us. We are on them."
The proposed bills would charge individuals with a third degree felony if they manufacture, deliver, sell or possess with intent to sell, deliver or manufacture the new forms of bath salts, also known as synthetic cathinone, and K2, also known as synthetic cannabinoid.