Police confiscate Spice from Bloomington Sunoco store

Bloomington police seized 260 packages of herbal incense — otherwise known as synthetic cannabis, K2 or Spice — from a Bloomington convenience store Sunday.
 
The seizure was a first for the city since the product became illegal in Indiana in July, Bloomington Police Department Sgt. Jeff Canada said.

Police received a tip Sunday evening that the incense was being sold at a Sunoco on South Walnut Street.

Officers entering the store asked a clerk if the store had any Spice. The clerk denied the product being sold in the store, Canada said, but allowed the officers to look behind the counter.

There, officers found boxes with packages of 10 different types of the herbal incense — 780 grams in all. The packages were labeled with warnings that the products were not for human consumption.

Police asked the clerk if he was aware of the recent change in the law. He was, Canada said, but he told the officers that the store’s owner had instructed the clerks to keeping selling the incense until police told them to stop.

The officers contacted the owner of the store, who said he spoke with the manufacturer and was told the specific illegal chemicals were not present in these types of incense.  

Police confiscated the products, Canada said, but no arrests were made. The investigation is ongoing.

— Jake New