Verde Valley AZ (April 4, 2013) – On April 3, 2013, Governor Jan Brewer made the use, possession or sale of synthetic drugs illegal in the state of Arizona by signing HB2327. Violators of the new law face felony charges.
Sheila Polk, Yavapai County Attorney and MATFORCE Co-Chair said, “We first started hearing about the devastating effects of synthetic drugs in 2010. Reports included a mother in Cottonwood who almost lost her teenage daughter to bath salts.” The mother, who wishes to remain anonymous said, “This drug is a horrible, horrible thing. It changed my daughter drastically, mentally and physically. She lost 35 pounds. She was bleeding from her nose and ears.” Stories of illness, injury, aggression, paranoia and psychosis continued to surface. In January of 2011, Yavapai County Juvenile Probation officials reported that out of 99 juveniles, 87% reported experimenting with the synthetic drug “spice.”
A county-wide public awareness program was launched by MATFORCE. Merilee Fowler, MATFORCE Executive Director said, “It is MATFORCE’s mission to reduce substance abuse. Using our many hundreds of volunteers and supporters, MATFORCE provided education about the dangers of spice and bath salts in schools, public presentations, advertising, posters, billboards and media pieces.”
In January 2012, concerned citizens formed public protests in front of convenience stores selling synthetic drugs. In the spring of 2012, local law enforcement developed a “Community Protection Agreement.” Officers went door-to-door asking sellers of these drugs to voluntarily stop because of the great harm they were causing.
The Arizona State Legislature and local communities attempted to ban the substances in 2011 and again in 2012. But each time the legislature added one of the drugs to the controlled substances list, those creating these dangerous drugs would simply change the chemical compound to get around the law.
Polk said, “The toll on our community was growing. Emergency room personnel reported treating an average of ten patients a week suffering from the effects of these drugs. The cases included severe agitation, aggression, psychosis and hallucinations. Permanent physical and mental damage was occurring and even death in some instances.”
In June of 2012, Yavapai County took an aggressive and unprecedented approach, seeking to ban sales of synthetic drugs as a public nuisance. Deputy county attorney Scott Blake developed the concept and the Yavapai County Attorney’s Office began pooling the resources of law enforcement, courts, probation and MATFORCE’s volunteer community partners. The process included amassing the evidence of harm. Over one hundred citizens signed affidavits attesting to personal and public harm. With overwhelming evidence at hand, Yavapai County Superior Court placed a ban on the sales of any type of synthetic drug on August 10, 2012.
Fowler said, “Speaking on behalf of MATFORCE and our community partners, we should be very proud of our grassroots effort to stop this poison in our community. After the ban, emergency room visits dropped to three or less per week.”
But the ban did not stop some of those most intent on selling these dangerous drugs. Law enforcement soon started hearing reports of those still selling. Neither did the Yavapai County ban affect those selling in other counties.
Polk said, “Today that has changed. I commend Governor Brewer and our state legislature for the action they have taken today to protect the health of our communities. The steps we took in Yavapai County and the evidence we were able to offer the bill’s sponsor, Representative Farnsworth, helped make this new and tough law a reality.”
Polk added, “Stores selling these drugs throughout the state should know that effective immediately, they must remove all synthetic drugs from their shelves or face felony charges. Selling or possessing any type of synthetic drug is now illegal. This new law makes changing the chemical compound to get around the law virtually impossible.”
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