Two fairly new designer drugs, commonly known as bath salts and Spice, were outlawed Thursday via Gov. Butch Otter’s signature. These two drugs have been making headlines in Idaho for the past year and recently have been gaining national attention. The law takes effect immediately.
Bath salts have even made the Drug Enforcement Administration’s list as a “Drug of Concern” even though only a handful of states have decided the problem is bad enough to ban them.
With the governor’s signature, Idaho joins a dozen states to have banned Spice over the last couple of years.
According to the state Office of Drug Policy (ODP), bath salts and Spice are designer drugs that can cause hallucinogenic and suicidal thoughts. “Make no mistake, these are chemicals that are not used to ‘soak in a relaxing bath’ or for ‘aroma therapy,’” Debbie Field of the ODP said. She also added that these drugs contain toxic chemicals, none of which are found in traditional household bath salts, adding that they are “not for human consumption.”
During the press conference, Gov. Otter called this “an important time because it seems we have a never-ending list, or battle, against controlled substances.” He also expressed his hope that these would be the last of the drugs added to the controlled substance list for the state, but cautioned against thinking that way. “It seems like every time we turn around somebody finds a new way to destroy people’s lives.”
The governor did find some time for a little humor when talking about banning bath salts, joking,“Well, you get more than a good soak.”
Awesome job Gov! You saved your liquor and marijuana business! That spice was just to hard to compete against.
And thanks for saving our children from walking into bigsmoke and buying spice with they’re fake ID.
My straight “A” honor student sons (12 and 16) thank you for saving them from drugs. Your laws raised them to keep a sound body, mind, spirit and to live in the truth? Oh wait, that was me, they’re father, the scourge you point at and blame when it’s you who have failed your own kids! And quit joking, your not funny.
If’d you ever seen a kid going through severe withdrawals trying to quit synthetic cannabinoids like I have, you’d be sincere in your praise.
who cares, there is already legal product avail. as soon as the old product is removed the new product is put in its place.
The new 50 state legal stuff is better, stronger anyway. There are millions of psychotropic plants the government cant ban them all. BANNING ANYTHING IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL. Ps kids on spice withdrawl is funny, as the FAKE/Counterfeit spice will lead to addiction most gas stations peddle fake spice and not the real product. They sell the fake spice cheap, filthy camel jockeys they play the fake spice game get kids sick and the govt bans the rwal stuff
The local shops in my area provide more than a dozen jobs, and sales tax revenue. Federal laws have been totally symbolic; as will these new laws being considered by the legislature. “Spice” is still and readily available online probably always will be. The only real world effect these will have are to cut tax revenue, close businesses and wither jobs. There is no scientific evidence spice is more harmful than alcohol or tobacco. Our court systems and law enforcement have enough to deal with. We do not need to go criminalizing relatively harmless behaviors. However, it IS mildly amusing to watch local law enforcement “shoveling the driveway during a blizzard” trying to get rid of this stuff. The message I am hearing from legislators is “Law enforcement is bored, the State budget is bursting at the seams.” I wish they would use those resources to go catch some rapists or bust a meth lab or something. Drug policies of the past are a FAILURE and repeating over and over them is a waste.