DULUTH'S BAN OF SYNTHETIC MARIJUANA ON HOLD UNTIL JUDGMENT IN LAWSUIT

The city of Duluth, Minn., said Tuesday that its ban on fake pot is
constitutional, but it has agreed not to enforce it until a court
decides the issue.

In a three-page response to a lawsuit filed this month, a deputy city
attorney disputed claims made by the owner of a Duluth head shop who
said the new law is so broad that it not only outlaws synthetic
marijuana but also such over-the-counter remedies as Vicks VapoRub.

The city also denied the shop owner's claims that there was no
scientific evidence that synthetic marijuana has any psychotropic
effect and that it poses no health or safety threat.

On Aug. 30, Duluth became the first city in Minnesota to outlaw
"synthetic cannabinoids," which are otherwise-legal compounds
discovered by a chemistry professor in 1995. The compounds have since
been turned into incense, and some users believe the compounds mimic
the effects of marijuana.

Four days after Duluth's city council passed the ordinance, James
Carlson, owner of Last Place on Earth, a novelty shop, sued the city
in U.S. District Court. He said the products -- sold under such names
as Mojo, Yucatan Fire, Skunk and Pandora Potpourri -- made up more
than half of his sales.

He also argued that the law was written so broadly that it outlaws
several commercially available cold remedies.

The law carries a fine of up to $1,000 a day for any person selling
the products, and Carlson asked a judge for an injunction and a
temporary restraining order barring the city from enforcing the law.

On Oct. 7, the city agreed to refrain from enforcing the law until a
judge rules on the suit.

Deputy City Attorney M. Alison Lutterman, who filed the city's legal
response, would not take calls from a reporter, according to a
receptionist at the city attorney's office. Duluth City Attorney
Gunnar Johnson did not return calls for comment; the receptionist
said he was out of the office until Thursday.

When he filed the lawsuit on Carlson's behalf, Golden Valley attorney
Randall D.B. Tigue said the ordinance was based on "hysteria" and was
"drafted without the slightest clue as to what the scientific
evidence is about what does or doesn't create a public health hazard."

He said it was the responsibility of the state and federal
governments to determine what constitutes a "controlled substance,"
and that a municipality had no business assuming that role.

When it passed the ordinance, the city council included a "statement
of purpose" claiming preliminary studies have shown that three
synthetic cannabinoids "are between three and 100 times more potent
than THC, the active ingredient in marijuana."

Because of that potency, the products represent "a health, safety and
general welfare concern for the citizens of Duluth," the statement said.

But Carlson, whose store has been a fixture in downtown Duluth for 29
years, said the concerns were overblown and the law's prohibition of
hemp products was so vague, it would ban display of the original
Declaration of Independence in Duluth "because it's on hemp paper."

Carlson sells the incense for $10 to $25 per gram, depending on the
potency. He contends that many of his customers use it to treat
medical conditions or chronic pain because medical marijuana isn't
legal in Minnesota.

On the same day Carlson filed his suit, the city council in
Hermantown, 10 miles west of Duluth, passed a similar ordinance. A
month earlier, Hermantown City Attorney Steve Overom told the council
that the League of Minnesota Cities was not taking a position on the
proposed ordinances, according to minutes of the Sept. 8 meeting.

Carlson filed an amended complaint Oct. 11, adding Pure Pleasure, a
store in Hermantown, as a plaintiff.