Friendswood considering banning faux-marijuana

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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Mushrooms and pot laced candies found in bust in Friendswood.

A narcotics search warrant turned up hydroponic marijuana and psychedelic mushroom-laced chocolate candies at a Friendswood home, police say.

Friendswood Police were investigating a residence in the 800 block of Briarmeadow Avenue on suspicion marijuana and other narcotics were being sold in the area.

When officers executed the search warrant on Feb. 11, they found:

-- 333.5 grams of chocolate candies containing Psilocybin, a hallucinogenic similar to LSD.

-- 1.215 ounces of hydroponic marijuana. Several small plastic baggies were also found indicating the marijuana was ready for distribution.

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Breaking: Explosions rock Belvieu plant!

Multiple explosions, fire at Mont Belvieu plant

Credit: AIR 11
A fire at Enterprise Products in Mont Belvieu was burning out of control more than an hour after witnesses heard multiple explosions.

by Michelle Homer / khou.com
khou.com
Posted on February 8, 2011 at 1:05 PM
Updated today at 1:39 PM


MONT BELVIEU, Texas – Several explosions at a Mont Belvieu plant were followed by flames that could be seen from miles around.
The explosions happened at Enterprise Products at 135 Sun Oil Road around 12:25 p.m.


Witnesses reported seeing workers fleeing from the Chambers County plant. Other workers were being told to stay inside.
The company hasn't released any details about injuries. An employee, who didn't want to be identified, said at least one contractor has not been accounted for.


The employee said the explosion happened in a subsection of the plant.
Chambers County officials say there's no known threat to the public at this time.

They have not called for evacuations.
State Highway 146 is closed near the plant.

The fire was still burning out of control nearly an hour after it began. The flames could be seen 25 miles away in Houston.

A Houston caller named Pat said she was talking by phone to a relative inside the plant when the first set of explosions happened. There were three more explosions while they were still on the phone. "Anywhere from eight to 11 explosions," according to Pat.

READ MORE AT KHOU

Controversy surrounds teen beating by Houston police

(CNN) -- Houston's mayor and police department were on the defensive Friday, two days after graphic video came out showing several police repeatedly kicking and beating a 15-year-old burglary suspect as he lay on the ground.
An internal police investigation of the incident last March led to the firing of seven police officers, said spokesman John Cannon of the Houston police department.

Two successfully appealed and returned to their jobs, said Houston NAACP President D.Z. Cofield.

Five other officers were disciplined in other ways, Cannon said. And a Harris County grand jury indicted four of the officers this summer, based in part on the video.
Harris County District Attorney Patricia Lykos opposed the video becoming public and felt doing so might prejudice potential jurors and force the indicted officers' trials to be moved out of the county.

Quanell X, a local activist, got hold of the surveillance tape showing the scene outside a storage facility and gave it to the media.
He said he had every right to obtain the footage and make it public.

"I will show my people what they deserve to see, and let the public see what you don't want them to see," Quanell X said.
Mayor Annise Parker said the police leadership and city acted properly.

"I resent any implication that we were trying to hide the tape," she said.
After viewing the footage, Houston Police Chief Charles McClelland Jr. fired the seven officers and a grand jury called for misdemeanor charges against four of them in June.

Lykos told reporters Thursday there was not sufficient evidence to pursue more serious charges, such as aggravated assault.
"Without revealing what was presented to the grand jury, in order to have aggravated assault you have to have serious bodily injury or impairment or use of a deadly weapon," she said. "None of that was apparent in this case."

The tape, first shown Wednesday on CNN affiliate WTRK, shows the 15-year-old boy -- being chased by police and falling to the ground after being upended by a moving police car. He then falls face first and places his hands on the ground.

A disciplinary letter from McClelland, dated June 23 and posted online less than two weeks later by CNN affiliate HTRK, says that the boy had his hands behind his head and neck area, in an obvious position of surrender.

Then, the letter adds and the tape shows, Officer Raad Hassan "then ran toward (the boy) and kicked him a total of 15 times," then later kicked him more times in the groin area even after he "was handcuffed and no longer a threat."

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Friendswood home invaders sought

Authorities in Friendswood, Texas are on the lookout for a faction of armed bandits accused of a home invasion incident that left three teenage brothers shaken, though they were lucky not to be hurt.

The incident occurred at approximately 8pm last Wednesday, at the brothers’ residence, located in the 500 block of Heather Lane.

The brothers were home alone when three male subjects broke into the house and went into their bedrooms, according to Friendswood police. At least one of the men was armed with a pistol. The robbers compelled the victims into one of the bedrooms and ordered them to stay there.

Police say that the robbers rummaged through the house, and the invasion lasted for nearly a half-an-hour, until they finally ran off.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE at the Examiner