The packets can be tie-dyed, tantalizing prospective buyers with their psychedelic colors. The image of an evil-looking Mad Hatter or a Scooby Doo with his tongue stuck out is plastered on packets labeled "incense" or "potpourri."
Or the packets can be simple. A black background with silver lettering.
Sometimes they say "not for human consumption" or "100% compliant, 50 state legal." Ten grams can go for $40 a pop. Four grams for $20.
These synthetic cannabinoids - known as synthetic marijuana, K2 or spice - can be found in some convenience stores and gas stations. It's an issue state legislators are trying to combat with several bills in the Maryland General Assembly and Carroll County Health Department officials are attempting to raise awareness of at a public meeting with the Carroll County Board of Commissioners Tuesday.
"They call this synthetic marijuana and fake weed - but it's really so much more," Linda Auerback, a county health department substance abuse prevention supervisor, said. "It's so much more powerful."
It can cause hallucinations and delusions. Users can become paranoid. Their heart may race. They might begin vomiting, and the blood supply to their heart could be reduced, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
While a federal ban in July outlawed some synthetics, manufacturers have been able to tweak the chemical compounds in the drugs, according to health department officials, state legislatures and a federal Drug Enforcement Administration official. And voila, they've created a product that is no longer illegal to buy or sell.
"These chemists are trying to be one-up on us all the time," said Edward Marcinko, a special agent and spokesman for DEA's Baltimore office. "People don't know what they're taking by taking these products. They're not controlled. They're not [Food and Drug Administration] approved. ... Basically, you're playing Russian roulette. You don't know what you're getting."
Carroll County briefing
Carroll County Health Department officials compiled a pamphlet breaking down the issue of synthetic marijuana to show the commissioners at the public meeting Tuesday at 1:30 p.m in the county government building in Westminster. It states the drug's dangers, marketing techniques and several bullet points, such as the fact that more than 40 states have banned synthetic cannabinoids. Maryland is not one of them.
"We have to make the commissioners aware," Auerback said, "because it would be awful if they heard of it that it's right here in the community, and that we didn't make them aware."
Steve Powell, the commissioner's chief of staff, said he was anxious to learn more about the drug and what can be done to combat its prevalence.
In order to ban synthetic cannabinoids - and those substances that have similar compounds to the drug - in the county, it would have to be approved in the state legislature since it's a criminal law, according to Del. Susan Krebs, R-District 9B. It's essentially too late for the county to submit its own bill into the state legislature, but that's OK, Krebs said, because a statewide bill would be more effective. That way, an individual couldn't buy a packet simply by driving over the county line.
"As far as enforcement, I particularly agree with Del. Krebs," Larry Leitch, county health officer, said, "that it's got to be at the state level to have any uniformity and any teeth to it."
The briefing will serve to answer any questions the commissioners have in the meantime, he said.
Addressing the problem
Synthetic cannabinoids' prevalence in the state has increased, a fact legislators have noticed.
The Maryland Poison Center received 222 calls for human exposure to synthetic cannabinoids from around the state in 2012, and six were from Carroll County. In 2010, it only received 16 statewide, and one was from the county, according to Bruce Anderson, the state poison center's director of operations.
Yet, these numbers are "likely a dramatic under-representation of the actual use that's taking place in the state," he wrote in an email. That's because reporting to the state poison center is voluntary, calls generally come in only when there's a problem and the data does not include figures from the center servicing Prince George's and Montgomery counties.
Thus, a handful of bills have been introduced in the Maryland General Assembly to strengthen the state's laws.
"It's something that's proliferating," Del. Theodore Sophocleus, D-Anne Arundel, said, "and we have to do something about it."
His bill, HB267: Criminal Law - Controlled Dangerous Substances - Research - Synthetic Cannabinoids, is aimed at allowing an authorized state researcher the ability to conduct research with controlled dangerous substances not scheduled under federal law.
Del. Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio and Sen. Richard Colburn, two Mid-Shore Republicans, have sponsored bills in their respective chambers to require a court, when determining if a person has violated the prohibition against distributing a non-controlled substance, to consider if the chemical structure is substantially similar to a banned synthetic.
"This would give law officers and prosecutors a tool to get synthetic drugs off the streets and out of the hands of youth," Haddaway-Riccio said, "without having to wait for the federal government to add all of this to the controlled dangerous substance list."
There's one from Del. Galen Clagett, D-Frederick County, to establish penalties for usage, sale and distribution of such drugs.
Del. Cathleen M. Vitale, R-Anne Arundel, has a bill in to add specified types of synthetic drugs to the schedule I controlled dangerous substance list, so that they would no longer be able to be sold, distributed or possessed. This would apply to substances that are substantially similar to already banned items.
"If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and in this case smokes like a duck, it pretty much is one," she said.
The bill includes requiring manufacturers to label the substances contained in the packet, so the state can be a step ahead and know the identities of the newest compounds.
She, and other legislators, said there's a point to the introduction of a wide array of bills on a similar topics. It's to combine the best ones and create one big piece of legislation.
"Our goal is to create a legislative product that incorporates what I believe to be the best tools from the various bills," she said. "The number one goal: Get it off the streets, get it out of the hands of kids."
Enforcing
a ban
If these bills pass, it'll arm local law enforcement with the ability to better tackle that mission.
Similar to any controlled dangerous substance, officers would be able to investigate any store they thought were selling the items, said Elena Russo, a Maryland State Police spokeswoman. Police could seize the items, and test them in a state forensic science laboratory.
Maj. Phil Kasten, spokesman for the Carroll County Sheriff's Office, said deputies would do the same. He said the county has investigated several medical emergencies over the past two years that could be linked to synthetic cannabinoids.
And it'll come full circle, allowing state's attorney's to prosecute violators.
"If the law is able to be flexible when the manufacturers change their formulas to work around the named substances," said Edward Coyne, narcotics prosecutor for the county's state's attorney's office, "that would help us more than what is currently there."
As a law enforcement officer, Kasten hopes to see this come to fruition. And as a father, too.
"As a parent myself, I can relate to other parents," he said, "and I also always encourage everyone, it's important to talk about these things with your kids. The rule of common sense applies. If you're smoking it, ingesting it or snorting it, that is not normal. And there's nothing good that is going to come from that."
