The North Carolina House of Representatives has introduced a new North Carolina synthetic drug ban bill, House Bill 685, that will completely outlaw the sale and possession of all synthetic drugs, regardless of the active compound. Although the bill is still sitting in the judiciary committee (and has been there since April 11), the full bill is available for review online, and likely stands a good chance of passing in its current, brief incarnation.
Headshop owners and smoke shop owners are likely watching the progress of the sweeping House Bill 685 closely, knowing that it’ passage will mean the end of lucrative herbal incense, bath salts, and glass cleaner sales for their business.
What makes this North Carolina synthetic drug ban bill stand out is its brevity and wording. Instead of banning a list of chemicals or chemical classes, which allow major loopholes for the manufacturers and sellers of synthetic drugs, the House bill proposes to ban anything with effects similar to a controlled substance, regardless of how it is marketed.
The bill will amend the current Controlled Substances Act by defining synthetic drugs as “imitation controlled substances.”
For the purpose of this section, the term “imitation controlled substance” means a pill, capsule, tablet, or substances in any form that…is not a controlled substance enumerated in this Article which is subject to abuse and which by express or implied representations purports to act like a controlled substances as a stimulant or depressant of the central nervous system and which is not commonly used or recognized for use in that particular formation for any purpose other than for such stimulant or depressant effect unless marketed, promoted, or sold as permitted by the United States Food and Drug Administration.
That legal-ese basically means that any substance that could affect the central nervous system and which has no other known use is therefore an imitation controlled substance and is therefore banned. The law also bans anything with a chemical structure similar to a controlled substance. In fact, the General Assembly goes so far as to micromanage the decisions of citizens.
No person shall, for the purpose of causing a condition of intoxication, inebriation, elation, dizziness, excitement, stupefaction, paralysis, or the dulling of the brain or nervous system or disturbing or distorting of the audio and visual processes, intentionally smell, inhale, inject, ingest, or consume in any manner whatsoever an imitation controlled substance.
Essentially, this bill bans the use of any substance intended to intoxicate a person that isn’t already on the Controlled Substances Schedule. Alcohol apparently gets a free pass, while the citizens of North Carolina stand to have their lives and bodies micromanaged by the government.
Source found here
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