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City bans psychoactive bath salts, incense and spice 

New ordinance would go in effect in early 2015

Paso Robles City Council

Paso Robles Police Department Lt. Ty Lewis presents the draft ordinance banning psychoactive drugs. Photo by Heather Young

The Paso Robles City Council approved, 5-0, an amendment to the municipal code to ban psychoactive herbal incense, psychoactive bath salts and other synthetic drugs at its meeting on Tuesday. Councilman John Hamon Jr. requested at a previous meeting that the police department look into the issue and bring it back to the council.

Paso Robles Police Lt. Ty Lewis said that synthetic psychoactive drugs such as spice and bath salts are readily available in Paso Robles. He said they are sold in retail establishments and over the Internet. He said officers regularly find people in possession of spice and/or bath salts. In order to get around laws, he said that the makers of bath salts and spice products are continually altering chemical properties so prohibited chemicals are not included. Because current laws do not outlaw the possession of altered or modified synthetic spice or bath salts, it is not illegal to possess those substances.

SInce 2011, Lewis said, the department has seen an increase in reports related to these psychoactive drugs. As well as related DUI, rape and other juvenile cases.

“The drug is being marketed as a safe and legal alternative to marijuana,” Lewis said, adding that the drugs often have cartoon characters on the packaging and are flavored to draw younger users. He said parents have reported dependency on these drugs.

In order to write the draft ordinance, Lewis said the department researched what other police departments have done related to the drugs. Paso Robles’ ordinance will ban the possession of the substances and allow law enforcement to confiscate the rugs whether or not a sale takes place.

“Are we always going to be adding new substances?” Councilman Steve Martin asked.

“[No], this is really just a tool for us to say that you can’t sell them, but if you do we can seize them and destroy them,” Lewis said.

The drugs targeted by this ban are ones that rarely suitable for their marketed uses. An example given in the staff report is of a powder that might be marketed as “glass cleaner” but could not reasonably be used to clean glass. The synthetic drugs are typically sold in liquor stores, smoke shops and gas stations and are marketed as bath salts, spice, incense, potpourri, skin treatments, cleaning products and plant food even though those types of products are not typically sold in those businesses.

The maximum penalty of the misdemeanor violation is a fine up to $1,000 and imprisonment in a city or county jail up to six months. Martin asked about the penalties, saying they didn’t seem high enough. Lewis said the penalties were modeled after other cities. The city attorney said that those are maximum penalties allowed for this.

“I’m in favor of this ordinance because we need to do anything we can do to keep it out of the hands of the kids,” Paso Robles resident Dale Gustin said. “I think it’s a good ordinance.”

The ordinance will go into effect 30 days after its final approval, which is set for Tuesday, Dec. 2. Read the entire staff report here.

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