Commissioner Boner set to aim another weapon at synthetic marijuana

Submitted by Anne H. Oman

Reporter-at-Large

Bliss. Black Mamba. Bombay Blue. Cloud 9. K-2.  Crazy Clown. Maui Wowie.  Dead Man Walking.

Until last year, Fernandina Beach City Commissioner Ed Boner had never heard of any of the above.  Nor of Spice 99, Voodoo Pulse, California Dreams or any of the other myriad monikers for the latest drug scourge and youth craze: a mixture of herbs or dried shredded plant material that is sprayed with chemicals similar to the psychoactive ingredients in marijuana. These drugs have been sold in convenience stores or on the internet, marked as “potpourri” or “bath salts”.

Then in January 2012, Commissioner Boner got an e-mail from his alma mater, Stetson University, about a student, Logan Kushner, who had smoked K-2, then jumped into Kapok Park Creek in Clearwater and was found drowned several hours later.

About the same time, the Commissioner, who walks his dog around the Fernandina Beach High School track most mornings, began to find empty wrappers of Cloud 9 and other such products.

“These drugs come in from China and are being sold to kids – that’s not a good thing,” he said in an interview.  “I’ve got two children growing up here.  They’re 10 and 13, and they’re going to be exposed to this.”

The 2012 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey found that 4.8 percent of Nassau County high school students reported using synthetic marijuana in the previous 30 days.

To help protect his own and other children, Commissioner Boner will introduce legislation that would impose hefty fines on anyone who possesses, provides, sells or distributes synthetic marijuana.  Federal and state laws already impose criminal penalties.

“This will be one more tool for Chief Hurley,” explained Commissioner Boner.  “Civil fines may be easier to enforce.  Also with civil fines, people may be less likely to hire an attorney to fight it.  It will also send a message to the community: we don’t want this here.”

Fernandina Beach Police Chief Jim Hurley said Commission Boner’s bill “does positive things from my perspective.  It says we’re serious about keeping this stuff away from our kids.  We can promote it in the media and make businesses more responsive.  It tells them ‘if you want to make a quick buck by selling this stuff to kids, we’re going to impose a significant civil fine.”

“This stuff is more dangerous than marijuana – you don’t know what’s in it,” said Susan Woodford, Executive Director of the Nassau Alcohol, Crime, and Drug Abatement Coalition (NACDAC).

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the compounds found in synthetic drugs act on the same cell receptors as the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana but bind more strongly to those receptors, which “could lead to a much more powerful and unpredictable effect.”  Extreme anxiety, paranoia, hallucinations, rapid heart rate, vomiting, agitation, confusion, raised blood pressure, heart attacks and withdrawal symptoms have been reported by users.

”The manufacturers take potpourri and spray it with THC, the chemical in regular marijuana,” said Ms. Woodford.  “The potpourri becomes saturated, but the chemical goes to the bottom of the package.  If a user doesn’t think he’s getting high enough, he smokes stuff from the bottom of the package, which is particularly dangerous…. Kids would go to the emergency room, but they couldn’t test for it because they didn’t know what it was.  We’ve done a lot to educate ER personnel about it.”

These drugs have been around for about ten years, said Ms. Woodford.  “Florida law outlaws some 90 substances, but it’s a moving target.  They just change the chemical composition and next thing you know it’s legal, or they change the packaging and mark it ‘not for human consumption.’  The law is pretty effective, but kids report they can still get it.  There are factories down in Jacksonville where they pay people 10 cents a package to package it.”

According to Chief Hurley, State Attorney General Pam Bondi has helped make the moving target more vulnerable to law enforcement.

“In the past, the state legislature moved very slowly to outlaw the new chemicals, and that was initially a huge problem,” he said.  “But Attorney General Bondi has been proactive in working with law enforcement.  She has streamlined the process and made it workable.  Every time the manufacturers change the chemicals, we send a packet to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement lab.  We’re on top of it now.  We’re getting information quickly, and analyzing it.  Now we have teeth.  We can say: this is illegal.”

On October 10, the Attorney General issued an emergency rule adding four new synthetic drugs, including Crazy Clown, to the list of controlled substances.

Chief Hurley said the department does compliance buys for drugs, alcohol and tobacco using underage kids, with their parents’ permission.  He described a gas station on Sadler Road where “there was a huge cardboard box as big as a chair under the counter.  People would just reach in and pull the stuff out.  It was like a big open-air drug market.”

He added that the gas station is still in operation, but with a new owner who does not sell illegal drugs.

Ms. Woodford of NCDAC credits vigorous enforcement with helping to alleviate – but not completely eliminate –the problem.

“Sheriff Leeper has done an excellent job,” she said.

Nassau County Sheriff Bill Leeper said that when the Florida law was passed, his office sent notices to convenience stores telling them to stop selling synthetic marijuana in any form and to cease the purchasing of same and that the owner would be subject to arrest if the drug was found.

“We checked 14 convenience stores and found that five were selling it,” said the Sheriff.  “We seized 334 packets and got word of another store selling it and seized 500 more packets.  We charged the owner of a gas station in Yulee, and he, in turn, gave us information on the supplier, who was in Jacksonville.”

Sheriff Leeper said he would welcome Commissioner Boner’s bill to add civil penalties for selling these drugs.

“Any penalty, either criminal or civil, is a deterrent,” he said.  “We don’t want this stuff around here….It’s possible it’s still being sold under the counter.  We’re asking the public to please let us know if they see any.”

Several Florida localities, including Deerfield Beach, Miami Dade, Ocala, Sunrise and Sweetwater, have enacted laws imposing fines on people who sell or possess synthetic marijuana.  Commissioner Boner based his bill on the Pasco County law, which has been tested and upheld in court.  He plans to introduce the bill at the first commission meeting following the November 5 election.

“These drugs are more dangerous than the drugs that were around thirty years ago,” said Commissioner Boner.  “They’re poisoning our children.”

Said Fernandina Beach Police Chief Hurley: “The bill says ‘Don’t do this in our city.’ I  like that idea.  We’d like to fix the world, but meanwhile we’re going to fix our own little corner.”

 Editor’s Note: Anne H. Oman recently relocated to Fernandina Beach from Washington, D.C. Her articles have appeared in The Washington Post, The Washington Star, The Washington Times, Family Circle and other publications.

October 24, 2013 1:00 a.m.