Newstrack: Cedar Rapids lawmaker will try again to change synthetic drug law

Background

CEDAR RAPIDS - First-term Iowa Rep. Ken Rizer will make another run at winning passage of legislation to make it easier to prosecute anyone manufacturing, distributing or selling synthetic drugs.

The Cedar Rapids Republican came close last year, but the agreement he thought he had to attach his bill to the catchall standing bill fell through in the final hours of the legislative session.

'We had good bipartisan support for it,” he said, but in the end, the Senate declined to approve his bill.

His proposal, House File 567 - you can read it here - was based on language approved by the Cedar Rapids City Council after an Army veteran hung himself in his parents' home after struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and a two-year addiction to synthetic marijuana.

Synthetic marijuana - also known as K2 or spice - is typically organic material doused in chemicals meant to mimic the effects of marijuana. However, the potency of the drugs varies wildly, leading some to experience seizures, hallucinations, delusions, violent outbursts and unconsciousness.

The death of Cedar Rapids veteran Jerrald Meek and 18-year-old David Rozga of Indianola, also by suicide after using K2, have spurred legislation at the Iowa Capitol as well as by U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley.

Meek's death was brought to Rizer's attention by Cedar Rapids City council member Susie Weinacht. However, he was no stranger the abuse of synthetic drugs.

As commander of Andrews Air Force Base from 2010-12, Rizer dealt with a K2 drug ring in the Air Force National Guard. He kicked 12 people out of the Air Force for their involvement in the ring also while trying to make synthetic marijuana illegal in Maryland before the federal government recognized it as a Schedule I narcotic.

Rizer, who retired from the Air Force in 2012 and moved to Cedar Rapids, became familiar with Meek's case through a letter to the editor written by Gwen Meek about her son.

Working with Weinacht as well as Cedar Rapids Democrats Rep. Art Staed and Sen. Rob Hogg, Rizer pushed for a change in state law to make it easier for county attorneys to prosecute synthetic drug cases. The number of cases doesn't appear to be large.

However, synthetic drugs likely are underreported in Iowa because there is no requirement. The Iowa Poison Control Center reported receiving 10 synthetic drug exposure calls in one month.

Prosecuting synthetic drug cases is difficult because drug manufacturers change the drug compounds faster than the law could keep up. Working off a Florida law that addressed synthetic drugs through their marketing and other means, rather than their chemical composition, Rizer thought he had perfected a bill.

It defined an 'imitation controlled substance” as one that was marketed, sold, consumed and got the user high just like a synthetic drug that already was illegal. It passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, but then some senators wanted to include medical marijuana - a non-starter in the House.

What happens next

Rizer will introduce a new bill when the Legislature convenes Jan. 11 in Des Moines.

To make it more attractive to more of his colleague, Rizer will include an adjustment to the penalties for crack cocaine.

'I talked to a chemist and he explained to me that cocaine is cocaine,” Rizer said. 'However, there's a huge disparity in the penalties for the same amount of crack cocaine versus powdered cocaine. That has a negative effect on minority populations.”

According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, Iowa - where someone charged with possession of 50 grams of crack faces the same penalty as someone with 100 times as much powdered coke - has one of the greatest the disparities in its sentencing laws. That appears to unfairly target the poor, with blacks experiencing high incarceration rates as a result, according to critics of current laws.

'I think it has good support and I'm hoping that's enough that we can get enough people to support that bill and pass it,” Rizer said.