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dwpineal
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Florida adopted illegal chemicals law, but authorities expect new replacements
#16127463 - 04/23/12 07:01 AM (11 years, 11 months ago) |
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http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2012/apr/22/lee-collier-sheriff-synthetic-bath-salts-florida/
Florida adopted illegal chemicals law, but authorities expect new replacements
NAPLES — Packets of bath salts, plant food and incense being sold in convenience stores probably won't put suds in your tub, help your flowers grow or make your house smell better, but authorities say that's not what they're intended for.
The otherwise-marketed substances typically are designed as a synthetic marijuana or a stimulant that mimics cocaine or methamphetamine.
"This stuff works by clogging up your brain cells," said Lt. Harold Minch, with the Collier County Sheriff's Office special investigations unit. "If you light anything on fire and suck it into your lungs, it's not good for you. Simple as that."
From 2010 to 2011, U.S. poison control centers saw their calls for synthetic marijuana more than double; their calls for "bath salts" increased 20-fold. Bans on the drugs in 30-plus states have been largely ineffective, as manufacturers have simply gone back to the lab and changed the chemical makeup of the substances, effectively making the bans worthless.
In March, Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill banning more strands of the substances, meant to close loopholes found by manufacturers. Although there are now about 145 strands of chemicals made illegal, some law enforcement officers have a feeling they're in for another game of cat and mouse.
"I don't know what is going to prevent these people from just going back to the lab ... and substituting new chemicals that will rot your brain," Minch said.
Though not an alarming trend in Collier, Minch said the substances tend to be popular with people on probation because they often don't show up on a standard drug screen.
Teenagers also have been known to use the drugs because of their perception as being legal.
"One of the big things is just the availability that you can just go into the gas station and get them," said Steven Hill, director at the Vince Smith Center, which provides residential treatment in Lee County for 13- to 17-year-olds. "Over the past year, we've seen a huge increase in our youths."
Although teenage patients in the residential program tend to have more extreme histories of drug use, Hill said at least 80 percent of those in the program had experimented with synthetic drugs. A handful of them are being treated primarily for synthetic drug use, he said.
Elsewhere in Lee County, a handful of people have been arrested on synthetic drug charges, although it is typically an added charge in connection with another crime, Sheriff Mike Scott said.
"In a community of our size, there's no doubt that it's out there," sheriff Scott said. "It's kind of like when people were sniffing glue or taking the aerosol cans — they called it huffing. People just do what they want to get into an altered state."
The spinning wheel of manufacturing changes is also a problem when it comes to testing people for the substances, said Emily Castillo, clinical supervisor at the Collier-based David Lawrence Center.
"The drug tests are almost behind, with all the new changes coming out," she said. "They're expensive, and there are so many different strands (of the drugs) that we don't necessarily have a test if there's a new strand coming out."
And it has made it hard for authorities to make arrests. Packages of the substances were taken from four or five Collier stores last year to be tested, but none contained chemicals that were considered illegal, sheriff's lieutenant Minch said.
No arrests have been made for people using the drugs, either.
"We don't want to arrest somebody who doesn't have something illegal in them," he said.
Despite setbacks, in the aftermath of the governor's new ban, sheriff's officials say they will keep an eye on businesses that carry the synthetic drugs.
"If they're dirty and illegal, we'll put them in jail," Minch said. "The people that are selling it are preying on basically stupidity for profit, which is disgraceful.
"They sell it anyway."
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ArtieFartie
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Re: Florida adopted illegal chemicals law, but authorities expect new replacements [Re: dwpineal] 1
#16127494 - 04/23/12 07:20 AM (11 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
dwpineal said: "This stuff works by clogging up your brain cells,"
This is bullshit. I hate Florida..
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biggysmall
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Re: Florida adopted illegal chemicals law, but authorities expect new replacements [Re: ArtieFartie]
#16127539 - 04/23/12 07:53 AM (11 years, 11 months ago) |
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damn you beat me to it
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morrowasted
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Re: Florida adopted illegal chemicals law, but authorities expect new replacements [Re: biggysmall]
#16127547 - 04/23/12 07:58 AM (11 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
"This stuff works by clogging up your brain cells,"
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downlowfunk
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Re: Florida adopted illegal chemicals law, but authorities expect new replacements [Re: dwpineal]
#16127566 - 04/23/12 08:10 AM (11 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
dwpineal said: http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2012/apr/22/lee-collier-sheriff-synthetic-bath-salts-florida/
"They sell it anyway."
_______________ PSynthEtI _______________ Twice as much for a nickel.
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digitalemu
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Re: Florida adopted illegal chemicals law, but authorities expect new replacements [Re: downlowfunk]
#16127965 - 04/23/12 10:28 AM (11 years, 11 months ago) |
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I would say something useful but I can't because of my rotten brain and clogged brain cells...... At least my brain cells are not melting.
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mushiefeet
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Re: Florida adopted illegal chemicals law, but authorities expect new replacements [Re: ArtieFartie]
#16128071 - 04/23/12 11:00 AM (11 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
ArtieFartie said:
Quote:
dwpineal said: "This stuff works by clogging up your brain cells,"
This is bullshit. I hate Florida..
exactly what I thought
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sonamdrukpa
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Re: Florida adopted illegal chemicals law, but authorities expect new replacements [Re: mushiefeet] 1
#16128567 - 04/23/12 01:25 PM (11 years, 11 months ago) |
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Well, some bath salts work by preventing dopamine from being re-absorbed after it gets released into the space between your synapses. So I don't think "This stuff works by clogging up your brain cells" is too far off the mark.
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Simplepowa
In Pursuit of Knowledge
Registered: 03/06/09
Posts: 4,310
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Re: Florida adopted illegal chemicals law, but authorities expect new replacements [Re: sonamdrukpa]
#16128901 - 04/23/12 02:56 PM (11 years, 11 months ago) |
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This article show, in a efficient manner, how the war on drug doesn't work.
Good job, author!
and this police man is completely retarded
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Carl Sagan - "Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people." --- Robert Pirsig - "When one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion." --- Brian Cox - "[One] problem with today’s world is that everyone believes they have the right to express their opinion AND have others listen to it. The correct statement of individual rights is that everyone has the right to an opinion, but crucially, that opinion can be roundly ignored and even made fun of, particularly if it is demonstrably nonsense."
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morrowasted
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Re: Florida adopted illegal chemicals law, but authorities expect new replacements [Re: sonamdrukpa]
#16129244 - 04/23/12 04:19 PM (11 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
sonamdrukpa said: Well, some bath salts work by preventing dopamine from being re-absorbed after it gets released into the space between your synapses. So I don't think "This stuff works by clogging up your brain cells" is too far off the mark.
But that is true of A LOT of drugs. Saying Bath Salts work by clogging up brain cells is like saying birds fly because they have feathers. Plenty of feather-having birds don't fly.
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sonamdrukpa
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Re: Florida adopted illegal chemicals law, but authorities expect new replacements [Re: morrowasted]
#16130571 - 04/23/12 09:15 PM (11 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
morrowasted said:
Quote:
sonamdrukpa said: Well, some bath salts work by preventing dopamine from being re-absorbed after it gets released into the space between your synapses. So I don't think "This stuff works by clogging up your brain cells" is too far off the mark.
But that is true of A LOT of drugs. Saying Bath Salts work by clogging up brain cells is like saying birds fly because they have feathers. Plenty of feather-having birds don't fly.
I think your analogy is off. Shouldn't it be something like "Flying works by the process of wings flapping"? Having wings doesn't make birds fly, but clogging up synapses does make drugs work.
Anyway, I don't get it - why does the fact that that's true about a lot of drugs matter? Sorry, just a bit confused.
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morrowasted
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Re: Florida adopted illegal chemicals law, but authorities expect new replacements [Re: sonamdrukpa]
#16130619 - 04/23/12 09:23 PM (11 years, 11 months ago) |
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To say that the drugs work by clogging up your brain cells leaves out vital information. There are multiple ways of interpreting "clogging up", and there are many different kinds of brain cells and receptor sites on those brain cells. The brain works, in essence, by clogging up brain cells. It just clogs them up with neurotransmitters. What happens when the neurotransmitters "clog up" brain cells is they change its action potential, or potential to fire an electrical signal.
The biggest problem is that the officer is oversimplifying, which will lead to misinformed individuals believing they know how drugs work. Just like how most people think inhalants work by cutting off your oxygen supply.
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sonamdrukpa
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Re: Florida adopted illegal chemicals law, but authorities expect new replacements [Re: morrowasted]
#16130761 - 04/23/12 09:46 PM (11 years, 11 months ago) |
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Well, yeah, guess so. Just when the standard is misinformation, oversimplification seems a godsend to me.
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rodfarva
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Re: Florida adopted illegal chemicals law, but authorities expect new replacements [Re: sonamdrukpa] 1
#16131070 - 04/23/12 10:43 PM (11 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
Teenagers also have been known to use the drugs because of their perception as being legal.
So this shit is bad, according to this, because teenagers will try it, and because its hard to find in a drug screen...
Thank god these people are around to keep me from putting 'legal' things in my body that arn't good for me. Just the other night i was starting to eat a pile of broken glass and this cop slapped it out of my hand at the last second. I would have been dead for sure.
How many of these cops got shitfaced at the local Ale House this week and drove home?
...this is going to turn into a rant if i dont stop.
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blackstatis
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Re: Florida adopted illegal chemicals law, but authorities expect new replacements [Re: rodfarva]
#16132247 - 04/24/12 08:02 AM (11 years, 11 months ago) |
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i also was caught trying to eat glass. so there is a new law in my area banning glass made from sand, soda ash, and lime. good thing there are companies making glass from synthetics so i can get my fix.
"I don't know what is going to prevent these people from just going back to the lab ... and substituting new chemicals that will rot your brain," Minch said.
^my guess is legalization
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