FRIENDSWOOD — The city of Friendswood might soon join other cities in Galveston County in banning products that advertise a marijuana-like high when smoked.
The city council on Feb. 28 unanimously approved an initial vote to outlaw products marketed as incense or potpourri made of plant material doused in synthetic chemicals that mimic THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.
Brands include K2, Spice, Blonde, Summit, Standard and Citron, which are sold for up to $50 a package at smoke shops and convenience stores. A final vote on the law is scheduled for March 21.
Friendswood’s proposed law would prohibit the use, possession and sale of synthetic cannabinoids not yet categorized as illegal controlled substances under federal or state law and the devices used to consume the substances.
Possession of fake marijuana would result in a Class C misdemeanor, the same offense as a traffic violation, police Chief Bob Wieners said.
Santa Fe, Texas City and Dickinson have passed similar laws.
Friendswood police officers have encountered people in possession of synthetic marijuana at least four times a week for the past six months.
Police are awaiting toxicology tests of a 19-year-old Friendswood woman, who authorities said overdosed in December from smoking Spice, Wieners said. Packages of the substance were found in the woman’s house, he said.
Synthetic marijuana likely was a factor in the death of a man who crashed his motorcycle in November on West Bay Area Boulevard, Wieners said.
The Drug Enforcement Administration on March 1 exercised its emergency scheduling authority to control five chemicals used to make fake marijuana. The action makes possessing and selling the chemicals or products that contain them illegal in the United States.
The federal ban of the substances will remain in effect for at least year with a possible six-month extension while the DEA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services study whether the chemicals should be permanently controlled.
People wrongly equate the products’ legal retail availability with safe use, DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart said in a statement.
The Food and Drug Administration has not approved the chemicals for human consumption, and there is no oversight of the manufacturing process.
The Texas Poison Center Network has received 546 calls regarding exposure to synthetic marijuana since Jan. 1, 2010.
Ten of those calls came from Galveston County, said Jon Thompson, director of the Southeast Texas Poison Center at the University of Texas Medical Branch.
“That’s relatively up there,” Thompson said. “The only counties we receive more calls from are Harris, Bexar, Travis, Dallas and Tarrant. We don’t get a call about every exposure, so there could be many more cases out there.”
Side effects of smoking the product include seizures, anxiety attacks, dangerously elevated heart rates, increased blood pressure, vomiting and disorientation, Thompson said.
State lawmakers during the current legislative session have introduced five bills that would make the possession, manufacture and sale of synthetic marijuana illegal.
“It had already been banned in several European countries when it began showing up in the U.S. at the end of 2009,” Thompson said. “People are sick as dogs after smoking this stuff.”
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