Provide more tools to fight K2

The ever-shifting makeup of dangerous synthetic drugs, sold and marketed under names such K2, bath salts and spice, has been a consistent source of frustration to lawmakers and law enforcement in Iowa and around the country.

Now state legislators have a chance to adopt a different approach, modeled on a Cedar Rapids ordinance police say has helped keep dangerous substances out of more would-be users' hands.

House File 567, authored by State Rep. Ken Rizer (R-Cedar Rapids), provides criminal penalties against anyone who sells the drugs based on false advertising or misrepresentation of the substances. It also would increase penalties for selling synthetics.

The bill, now under consideration in the Senate, is modeled after a City of Cedar Rapids ordinance that went into effect in August 2014. Rizer has said he drafted the bill on behalf of the family of Sgt. Jerrald Meek, a U.S. Army Special Forces veteran who struggled with K2 addiction and ultimately took his own life.

Cedar Rapids Police Chief Wayne Jerman told us this week that while the Cedar Rapids ordinance hasn't eliminated synthetic drugs from his jurisdiction, it has made them less visible, and therefore less available to casual would-be users of the drug. That's a step in the right direction.

Jerman says the goal of the ordinance is to save lives, adding: individuals need to be 'fully aware of how deadly and dangerous it is.”

Synthetics, sometimes called synthetic marijuana, are dangerous, chemically-laced substances made to mimic marijuana. They can cause seizures, delusions, hallucinations and unconsciousness.

Traditional attempts to combat the drugs have been frustrated by the fact that manufacturers have been able to change their chemical composition faster than legislatures have been able to outlaw them. A statewide adoption of Cedar Rapids' approach would give law enforcement agencies an important tool to fight the drug based on their intent, not their specific formulation.

And even as we urge lawmakers to make it easier for Iowa law enforcement and courts to prosecute peddlers of these substances, we urge everyone to help educate Iowans, particularly young Iowans, about the dangers of synthetic drugs.

Even as lawmakers develop tools to interrupt the supply of dangerous synthetics, we must also target the demand for them.

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