Update: SC Bans Bath Salts, Synthetic Marijuana

October 24 Update 5:30 p.m.

The S.C Board of Health and Environmental Control voted unanimously to ban bath salts and synthetic marijuana in a conference call.

The board moved three compounds found in bath salts and five cannabinoids used in synthetic marijuana, called K2 or spice, to the schedule 1 controlled substance list, making their possession and sale illegal in the state until the legislature changes the law.

SLED began notifying government agencies and convenience store trade groups on Friday when the DEA announced the ban, so they could anticipate the change. Stores that were selling the two synthetic drugs are encouraged to make arrangements with their local law enforcement agency to hand over their remaining stock.

October 24 Update 12:15 p.m.

On October 21, the DEA issued an emergency ban on three stimulants found in bath salts, making it a schedule 1 controlled substance, and possession a federal crime.

With the go ahead from the federal level, the S.C. Board of Health and Environmental Control will meet at 4:30 p.m. today to consider making possession of both bath salts, which mimic the effects of cocaine, and synthetic marijuana a violation of state law.

Now, almost a dozen South Carolina counties and cities have banned the substances, as have 37 states according to the DEA.

September 22:

Lawmakers and state agencies are laying the ground work to ban “fake” marijuana and cocaine in South Carolina because the side effects are the same, or worse, than the real thing.

Synthetic marijuana, called “K2” or “spice,” and bath salts, which mimic the stimulant effects of cocaine, are both sold at smoke shops, head shops and gas station convenience stores across the state.

They’re completely legal because their active ingredients are not technically the same as the “real drugs.” Though the substances are labeled “not for human consumption,” they both are smoked, and the bath salts snorted, to produce a high.

South Carolina Law Enforcement Division’s (SLED) chief toxicologist Wendy Bell said the synthetic drugs are landing more people across the state in the hospital with severe symptoms and are showing up in an increasing number of DUI and sexual misconduct cases.

Unlike plant form marijuana, which Bell said carries no risk of overdoes, the chemicals, called cannabinoids, sprayed on the synthetic look-alike cause a lot more than sleepiness or “the munchies.”

"With these synthetic cannabinoids we’re seeing much more dangerous side effects,” Bell said. “Things like increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, folks are becoming very agitated, there's some paranoia and hallucination and side effects that seem to last after the initial effects of the drugs have worn off. So people are actually becoming violent under the effects of some of these synthetic cannabinoids, reactions that you don't typically see with standard marijuana. "

She said spice and bath salts are more dangerous than marijuana because there is no quality control and dosing and concentrations can vary, causing erratic and unexpected responses.

A bill banning several synthetic cannabis chemicals was introduced in the state Senate early this year and made it to the House, but never made it out of the Judiciary Committee. Neither did a March House bill to put five of the most common bath salt chemicals, including methylone, mephedrone and MDPV, to the state’s list of schedule 1 drugs, which are deemed most dangerous and carry the most fines and jail time.

Now, the Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) is gathering information from SLED and working with the Attorney General’s office and Sen. Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, to finally get laws changed.

“We are in discussions and trying to work out the best way to change the scheduling,” said DHEC spokesman Adam Myrick.

But Bell said getting the products off shelves permanently could be difficult. There are hundreds of cannabinoids and cocaine-like stimulants and very small tweaks on the molecular level can alter what an active ingredient is called, but not the high or its side effects.

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration issued an emergency ban on three chemicals in bath salts on September 7, meaning retailers across the nation have until the first week in October to stop selling the drugs. The DEA will then have a year to explore whether the ban should be permanent. Five ingredients in synthetic marijuana began the same review at the start of the year.  

But Bell said as soon that ban came down, SLED’s drug lab started getting cases involving different combinations of other synthetic cannabinoids that weren’t banned. She said that for the people producing the drugs, who have chemical synthesis backgrounds, coming up with new formulas that sit just outside the law isn’t very difficult.

She said the best way to deal with the growing problem is to write laws more broadly, so that they include general descriptions of a class of compounds in addition to specific examples.

Rock Hill and Chesterfield County have already banned the sale of bath salts and spice, and Columbia’s City Council intends to do the same in two weeks. Chemicals in both drugs are illegal in North Carolina, and more than 30 other states.