Schneiderman announces order against Albany head shop

ALBANY, N.Y. (Legal Newsline) - New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced a consent order and judgment on Thursday demanding that designer drugs be removed permanently from the shelves of the Albany-based head shop Shining Star.

Dan Heins, the owner of Shining Star, was assessed $14,000 in penalties and costs as part of the order and judgment.

Schneiderman has won nine orders that permanently bar synthetic drugs from New York head shops' shelves since July.

"The proliferation of synthetic drugs has become a crisis in the capital region, New York state and across the country," Schneiderman said. "The judge's order proves that, by taking a creative approach in using the state's existing labeling laws, we can get swift results to remove dangerous designer drugs off store shelves and hold sellers accountable for breaking the law. We will continue to use every tool in our arsenal to combat the growing and dangerous designer drug epidemic."

The order and judgment permanently bans the sale of any unapproved, misbranded or mislabeled intoxicants or drugs at the store and was signed by Albany County Supreme Court Judge Roger D. McDonough.

Under the New York state labeling law, consumer commodity packaging must contain the name and place of business of the distributor, packer or manufacturer, as well as the common product name, net quantity of servings, net quantity of contents, uses or applications of the product, and appropriate directions and warnings for customary use.

On July 10, Schneiderman filed 12 lawsuits against 16 head shops in the state. His office received temporary restraining orders from all 12 judges within just 36 hours of the filing. The restraining orders effectively removed the mislabeled products from the stores' shelves.