5.14.2015

More Thoughts On Synthetic Drugs

After reading about the feds arresting the father and daughter who own the Gas Pipe stores (after taking all their money last year), I was reminded of the silly state of Texas law on synthetic drugs.

I don't want to give you tired head, but the Texas Health and Safety Code 481.1031 lists a ton of synthetic drugs by name that are illegal but adds this huge kicker: It includes anything which   “consists of any quantity of a synthetic chemical compound that is a cannabinoid receptor agonist and mimics the pharmacological effect of naturally occurring cannabinoids.”  Huh? So something is illegal if it is a cannabinoid receptor agonist that isn't actually marijuana but effects you like marijuana? That's the difference between legal and illegal?

The spokesman for the very conservative (but funny) Texas District and County Attorney's Association has said this about the "catchall provision": "That’s a judgment call that no lab chemist can make in court . . . The lab folks say, ‘We can diagram this chemical compound for you, but we can’t tell you whether the effect was similar’”

So how is a person who walks into the Gas Pipe wanting to buy fake weed know what is legal or not?  Hey, if I possess a bag of cocaine but don't know it's cocaine, that's not a crime. (Trust me, I'm right).  Hey, if I walk into Walmart and see a drink labeled "Cocaine Soft Drink", I have every right to believe it doesn't contain real cocaine.  And I would think someone who walks into the Gas Pipe has every right to believe that what he buys is legal as well.

To drive home the point, here's an actual lab report in Texas in a synthetic drug case:

Wow. Think about that. "[I]t has been reported in scientific literature" to be a cannabinoid receptor agonist? That's the exact same thing as saying that it has been decided in scientific literature to be illegal based upon Texas law.  That's how we are supposed to know what violates the law? What literature? Who wrote it? When was it published? Before it was published can we all assume that we had no notice the substance was illegal?  A person could go into a store, buy synthetic weed which has a chemical compound that has never been declared to be illegal, puts it in his drawer and then two years from now a "scientific" magazine in New Jersey comes out and reports that compound is a cannabinoid receptor agonist and that person now possesses something illegal in his drawer? You kidding me?

The War On Drugs is on drugs.

Edit: And somehow, once again, a post like this get interpreted as meaning I support K2.