DEA raids businesses nationwide for K2, Spice, synthetic drugs | Nation/World | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

DEA raids businesses nationwide for K2, Spice, synthetic drugs | Nation/World | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

Police and federal agents raided dozens of businesses suspected of selling drugs such as K2 and Spice in nearly 100 cities Wednesday as part of the first-ever nationwide crackdown on synthetic drugs.

The drugs, often marketed as herbal incense or bath salts, mimic highs from cocaine, marijuana and LSD and remain widely available in convenience stores, smoke shops and online despite a July 9 federal ban.


• In Columbus, Ohio, a drug task force raided three shops and a convenience store, seizing hundreds of packets of K2 and Spice, and arresting two people, Franklin County Sheriff Zach Scott said. The packets of chemical-coated herbs sold for $35, Scott said.

The Drug Enforcement Administration raided a business in Worthington, Ohio, that agents believe supplied the stores, he said.

• In Duluth, Minn., federal agents executed search warrants at a shop called Last Place on Earth, which is suspected of selling the synthetic drugs, said Jeanne Cooney, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Minneapolis.

Duluth Police called the store an "ever-evolving nuisance." Police said they have had a big increase in calls involving use of synthetic drugs around the shop.

"For the last 16 months, problems with synthetic drugs and the behaviors around the Last Place on Earth downtown has been a major concern for our citizens, business community and the police department," police said in a written statement.

Federal agents and local police also cracked down on businesses in Tampa, upstate New York, and a dozen gas stations and convenience stores near Pittsburgh. In Texas, the DEA executed search warrants at 14 smoke shops in Rio Grande Valley cities, including Brownsville and South Padre Island.

Many states banned the substances after a surge in calls to poison control centers about people sickened by the drugs. The American Association of Poison Control Centers reported 6,138 calls about the drugs in 2011, up from 304 in 2010. Since then, calls to the centers have slowed. Poison control centers logged 1,717 in the first six months of 2012.

The National Association of Convenience Stores warned its more than 148,000 member stores to take the product off shelves once the federal ban took effect, spokesman Jeff Lenard said.

Store owner Mustafa Jamal, who owns a Sunoco gas station with a convenience store in Richmond, Va., said he immediately removed synthetic drugs from the store.

"The day it was banned, the entire thing was thrown out of the building," Jamal said. He has received offers from manufacturers for other synthetic products they claim are legal, but he said he rejected them for fear of running afoul of the law.

Many stores, however, did not heed the warning. In Ohio, where the state outlawed the drugs before the federal ban, police in Columbus executed 16 search warrants at many of the stores in May, Scott said. "We let them know you need to quit it," he said. "Sure enough, they were at it again. There's plenty of money to be made," Scott said. "This time, we're making arrests."