MORE MUNICIPALITIES BAN SYNTHETIC POT

But Some Communities Will Wait Until Federal, State Laws Are Passed
Prohibiting Substances

Three more Milwaukee suburbs passed ordinances banning the sale or
possession of synthetic marijuana last week as law enforcement and
municipal authorities hurried to close the door on the substances.

The actions come as state and federal governments work on their own
measures to control the products, which mimic the effects of
marijuana but have been linked to harmful side effects, including
increased heart rate and blood pressure, vomiting, tremors, seizures
and extreme anxiety.

The substances are labeled not for human consumption and marketed
under such names as K2, Spice and Genie.

The Whitefish Bay Village Board on Monday and the Greenfield and
Cudahy common councils on Tuesday passed measures outlawing the
substances. Typical was Greenfield's, which contained $100 to $500
fines for possession or sale. West Allis had fines of up to $1,000
for possession, $2,000 for sale of the products in its previously
passed measure.

In all, eight Milwaukee County suburbs have now passed ordinances
since Milwaukee adopted its ban Oct. 12, with five more suburbs
deliberating the issue, and five in which there is no current plan to
pursue action.

Waukesha and Menomonee Falls are among other municipalities that now
have bans, along with Eau Claire, La Crosse, Wausau and the
Wisconsin Dells - as many as 24 communities in all statewide,
according to Robert Block, an expert on the substances in the State
Crime Lab branch in Madison.

In at least one case, the local patchwork of ordinances was bad luck
for a woman busted Nov. 22 for selling K2 out of her van in the 4500
block N. Oakland Ave. in Shorewood. The Whitefish
Bay / Shorewood border is in that block, and according to a
police report, she thought she was in Whitefish Bay, which had not
yet passed its ordinance. Unfortunately for her, Shorewood had passed
its measure Nov. 15 - and it had also recently annexed from Whitefish
Bay the property in front of which she was arrested.

She received a village citation and was fined, police said.

Some communities will wait

Not everybody agrees that the ordinances are necessary, especially
since the federal Drug Enforcement Agency issued a notice last month
that it would ban five chemicals that are used in manufacturing the substances.

Michael Weber, village administrator in Hales Corners, read about the
DEA notice in a newspaper story. "If there's an ordinance we need to
put in place, we'll do that," he said, "but I got the impression from
the article that it wasn't necessary."

Will Taylor, public information officer for the DEA's Chicago Field
Division, said his agency is likely to focus its efforts on
manufacturers and distributors of the substances after the order
becomes official, as early as Dec. 24 - and not on stores or their customers.

And Taylor added that he's already heard of manufacturers "tweaking"
their products chemically so that they contain none of the banned
chemicals but still produce the high. But he warned against those
products, too.

"People don't know what they're putting in their system," he said.
"Just because something's not illegal, that does not necessarily make
it safe to put in your body. The long-term effects haven't been studied."

Another argument against the new local measures: They might conflict
with existing state law, or with likely new state legislation.

Michele Ford, city attorney for St. Francis, which is still studying
the issue, said she's advising the city to hold off on an ordinance
for two reasons - because it wouldn't be clear if it jibes with
coming state legislation, and also because she believes state law
already prohibits the sales of the substances under language that
bans "analogs" of controlled substances.

"We feel we're covered by existing legislation and will wait to see
what the Legislature comes up with," she said.

But Block, technical unit leader in the drug identification unit of
the crime lab's Madison branch, disagrees that existing state law
applies. He says that the substances aren't chemically similar enough
to marijuana or its main active ingredient, THC, to be considered analogs.

State Rep. Garey Bies (R-Sister Bay) said this fall that he'd
introduce a bill to ban the substances. On Thursday he said that he
had sent it out for responses from law enforcement officials and
district attorneys for their input.

Block says the law as drafted now would be "unworkable," but that he
and a Department of Justice colleague have written proposed language
that he thinks would be enforceable - language that he said would
also allow the law to coexist with separate local ordinances.

Bies, who will be the chairman of the Public Safety and Public Health
Committee when the GOP takes control of the Legislature in January,
says he'll move quickly then to schedule hearings on the bill. He
said support for doing something on the issue is bipartisan.

If the process goes quickly, Block says, the new law could be in
effect within six months.