By Jack Minch |
Vendors regularly telephone Bill and Jennifer Sheldon's tobacco shop Rebel Smoke asking them to carry synthetic marijuana or synthetic cocaine, which are still legal in the state.
The vendors entice them with the lure of high profit margins.
Consumers also call looking for outlets at which to buy the product.
"We get calls for it every day, and we refuse to sell it," said Jennifer Sheldon, whose shop is at 16 John Fitch Highway in Fitchburg.
The synthetic drugs are made out of chemicals that reportedly mimic the effects of the real drugs but are not detected on drug tests.
The synthetic marijuana is usually referred to as herbal incense or by a brand name such as K2 or Spice.
Synthetic cocaine is generally referred to as "bath salts" — which is a misnomer because it has nothing to do with real bath salts — or "plant food."
"It's a big issue," said Barbara Carreno, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Washington, D.C.
Some states have banned herbal incense and are turning attention to the outlawing of bath salts.
Massachusetts has not outlawed the herbal incense but state Rep. George T. Ross, R-Attleboro, is hoping to have the House pass his bill outlawing bath salts before it goes on break Wednesday.
His bill would classify bath salts as a class C drug, which is the same category as cocaine.
"I'm not a chemist but I can tell you, all the research I've done, all the experts I've talked to, it mimics cocaine," Ross said. "But in the end when you are coming down you have suicidal thoughts and everything else, it's a very dangerous drug."
The Sheldons believe synthetic marijuana and cocaine should be illegal.
The synthetic drugs are dangerous and made from chemicals that are not meant to be ingested, Bill Sheldon said. Packaging even carries warnings not to ingest, he said.
The drugs reduce coordination, create a sense of euphoria, Sheldon said.
The state House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Ross' recently.
During the hearing, a woman testified her son was hospitalized seven weeks after ingesting bath salts because he suffered paranoid tendencies.
"It was a real emotional hearing," Ross said. "One of the most emotional I've been to, and I've been to a few."
Ross said a friend's daughter in Attleboro was using bath salts.
"I started doing some research on it, and it's a real heinous situation," he said.
Its ingredients typically include chemicals used for cleaning pond scum or as fertilizer, he said.
Illicit drug manufacturers started making synthetic forms of ecstasy and cocaine in the early 2000's, said Carreno, a spokesman for the DEA in Washington, D.C.
"This latest trend you are seeing is relatively new," Carreno said. "The first synthetic cannabinoid were seized in late 2008."
The DEA put five of the most popular chemicals used in making synthetic marijuana on its control list March 1, and bath salts went on the list Oct. 21. That means only a limited number of people, such as researchers, can have access to them.
The Department of Health and Human Services will eventually recommend whether they should remain permanently barred.
Clemson University organic chemistry Professor John W. Huffman developed many of the synthetic chemicals in his research and has been a vocal opponent to using them to get high, Carreno said.
According to Clemson's website, Huffman's research group studies the synthesis of THC, the principal active ingredient in marijuana.
The U.S. Navy recently announced it is discharging 64 sailors from the Third Fleet for using synthetic drugs. Some of the sailors are stationed on the USS Carl Vinson, the aircraft carrier known for burying Osama bin Laden's body at sea.
The synthetics are often available in gasoline stations or convenience stores, but the DEA does not have the manpower to go after them, Carreno said.
They are also available on the Internet.
Herbal incense and bath salts have not risen to a problem in Fitchburg, said police Detective Sgt. Gary Ouellette.
"Talking with the guys in the field, they say there's a problem in Maine," he said.
Employees at a smoke shop in Leominster were so afraid of having their name associated with the synthetic drugs they would only say they oppose them, do not sell them and declined any further comment.
Jack Minch