Rep. Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, in this file photo.Lawmakers introduced a number of pieces of legislation this session to bolster laws against synthetic drugs in Tennessee after some in local law enforcement expressed concerns that current laws allowed room for the bad guys to duck the state code.
Until state and federal laws enacted over the last year or so cut into availability, convenience stores and “head shops” across the state openly sold synthetic marijuana under names such as Spice, JH/Kush and K2. Synthetic cocaine and ecstasy also were sold as “bath salts” under names such as Ivory Wave, Cloud 9, White Lightning and Molly’s Plant Food.
Rep. Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, one of several lawmakers pitching legislation at the problem, said officials are trying to keep up with changes that distributors and manufacturers make to get around the current laws. State laws now ban specific ingredients in the synthetic drugs and makers simply change the formula to avoid the law.
“All [synthetics manufacturers] have to do is change one of the chains in the compound and it becomes a new compound that is not illegal,” Sexton said. “You’re always fighting the technology.”
That fight prompted municipal ordinances in the Franklin County towns of Winchester, Decherd, Estill Springs, Cowan and Huntland, where officials have used noncriminal bans that address “any substance that mimics the effects of any controlled substances” to define broadly the substances used to make synthetic drugs.