US Senate and House bills seek to ban synthetic cannabinoids and stimulants

The U.S. Senate and House have competing bills to regulate legal highs making recent headlines, including synthetic cannabinoids and stimulants. The Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Chuck Grassley from Iowa, is called Dangerous Synthetic Drug Control Act of 2011 (S. 605), and the House bill, sponsored by Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, is called Synthetic Drug Control Act of 2011 (H.R. 1254). The Senate bill is aiming at "cannabimimetic agents" like K2, Spice, JWH compounds, and so on. The House bill goes after most of the synthetic cannabinoids, and also includes designer stimulants and substituted cathinones like mephedrone, MDPV, 'bath salts', etc.

There is also news that Senator Amy Klobuchar from MN might revise the Senate bill to include 2C-E and other quasi-legal 2C compounds in the wake of the recent 2C-E overdose by a group of inexperienced users in that state. You can read the full text of each bill to see which compounds made the list.

[Thanks Jonathan!]

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Posted By jamesk at 2011-04-04 13:45:27 permalink | comments

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chris 1974. : 2011-08-25 20:17:23

I think this is a war waged on senthetics cause they are legal and money is being lost from not arresting people for pot as much many smokers have switched to senthetic. Not making enough probation money.why go to jail when u can get hi legal.

escapegoat. : 2011-04-06 18:51:57

wrote a letter to my senators and my representative:

I am writing to you concerning the Dangerous Synthetic Drug Control Act of 2011 (S. 605)) in particular, and the War on Drugs in general.

The prohibition of mind-altering substances has never had the desired effect. When alcohol was under prohibition in the US, alcohol use went down for the first few years and then dramatically INCREASED to a level higher than before prohibition. Alcohol was manufactured illegally and thus was not subject to mandatory quality regulation, and as such alcohol-related deaths increased to a level never before seen in American history. Also, gang-related ("mob" was the term back then) crime and violence also dramatically increased during alcohol prohibition.

The same thing has occurred with drug prohibition. The problem has steadily gotten worse since the War on Drugs started. Drug use has increased. Criminal activity has increased. Fully one fifth of incarcerated individuals in the United States are NON-VIOLENT drug offenders. Meaning their only crime was possession or sale of a controlled substance. This is ridiculous.

There is a war going on in Mexico between competing drug cartels. As of December of last year the casualty count in this war was 30,100. Thirty thousand people have died in this battle. These cartels are not warring over who gets to sell drugs in Mexico--they are warring over who gets to sell their drugs to United States citizens. There is a lot of money to be made selling drugs to US Citizens -- so long as prohibition keeps the demand high. Ending the war on drugs will save more lives than it will ruin, I promise you.

Education, regulation, legalization, and increased treatment will make our country healthy again. All of these tactics work for alcohol--a VERY powerful psychoactive drug. Ending prohibition and treating drug use as a matter of public health will improve the quality of life in the United States.

Please take the first step towards ending the insanity of the War on Drugs -- vote no on Dangerous Synthetic Drug Control Act of 2011 (S. 605)).

William . : 2011-04-06 10:47:04

Lets ban protons too.

republicon and democrap. : 2011-04-05 18:35:58

protect the kids yo

alcohol and tobacco? nah, we make loads of cash off that.

why yes i do have friends in GEO group. what does that have to do with anything?

Anonymous. : 2011-04-05 08:02:48

In before the partisan party-bashing...

For those interested, Grassley and Dent are Republicans, Klobuchar is a Democrat.

It's good to know that both major parties are willing and able to make our decisions for us!

someone. : 2011-04-05 01:59:47

Personally I think we should just extend the ban to all chemicals. Come to think of it, that is too modest a goal. Let's ban all matter.

PuzzledPerson. : 2011-04-04 23:24:52

With all this hype about synthetics, one can only hope they forget about all of the legal or semi-legal natural drugs that are out there.

guest : 2011-04-04 17:02:11

Could this impact research into cannabinoids, or make therapeutic cannabinoid drugs illegal?

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US Senate and House bills seek to ban synthetic cannabinoids and stimulants

Posted By jamesk at 2011-04-04 13:45:27 permalink | comments

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