A synthetic fix for a real problem?

Indiana’s synthetic drug laws could get a lot tougher thanks to Senate Bill 0536, which was approved in committee in the General Assembly this week.

The bill, authored by Sen. Jim Merritt, R-Indianapolis, includes a number of expansions to current drug policy.

Among them are a change in the definition of a synthetic drug and a redefinition of intoxication to include impairment by any substance except food, tobacco or a dietary supplement.

We recognize the harmful effects of synthetic drugs, but we also believe synthetic drugs are a symptom of a bigger problem that is unlikely to be addressed by more drug laws.

The new bill defines a synthetic drug as a “substance a reasonable person would believe is a synthetic drug.” The bill also bans “synthetic drug lookalike” substances.  

Legislators may see this as a convenient way to combat synthetic drug abuse, but they are casting a strikingly wide net with this vague language.

The General Assembly may as well pass a bill banning “all bad drugs.”

We know we have a problem on our hands when we start banning substances using the “I know it when I see it” test, and that problem isn’t merely synthetic drugs.

It’s demand for drugs. And stricter drug laws have not been terribly successful in tamping down that
demand.

Previous synthetic drug bans were ineffective, because people wanted to buy synthetic drugs, and suppliers were more than happy to oblige them.

Whenever the state banned a compound used in synthetic drugs, manufacturers would simply tweak their formulas to make their products legal again.

Therein lies the problem. Many people who use synthetic drugs perceive them as offering a “legal high”. This is a way to experience the effects of marijuana or cocaine without having to get their hands dirty.

But synthetic drugs have been known to cause behavioral changes and health problems.

The American Association of Poison Control Centers reported 6,959 calls relating to synthetic marijuana exposure alone in 2011.

In shedding the risk of arrest posed by using real pot, people take on a new risk of serious injury or death when they smoke the fake stuff.

If synthetic drugs are so harmful to the mind and body, it would almost be preferable if those who were going to use drugs chose to smoke farmed marijuana instead of putting unknown, lab-crafted substances into their bodies.

We believe police should be able to keep our roads safe from impaired drivers, and we don’t want exotic chemical cocktails sending people to emergency rooms.

But we also understand that decades of strict drug prohibition have not stopped people from seeking a high off of everything from marijuana to alcohol to nutmeg.

Basement chemists, medical labs, farmers, tobacco companies and distillers are some people who synthesize drugs.

As lawmakers weigh the merits of the new synthetic drugs bill, we ask them to consider whether the drugs they seek to ban have been brought about in part by the harsh criminalization of far less harmful substances.