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Ban placed on K2, salvia
Zach Markovic / staff photo - Chemicals found in products like K2 and salvia have been banned by a recent ordinance from the Plano City Council.
By Zach Markovic, zmarkovic@acnpapers.com
Plano followed the example recently set by Allen and McKinney and banned K2 and salvia during Monday night’s city council meeting.
The ordinance carries a $500 fine for individuals who “use, possess, purchase, barter, give, publicly display, sell or offer for sale” either of the drugs. The ban specifically targets the chemical makeup of K2 or salvia. This is to ensure that suppliers do not simply change the name of the product so they can continue selling.
Also, it defines “ingestion device” and makes it illegal to have such a device when the sole purpose of the item is to ingest K2 or salvia.
The Plano Police Department is going give businesses until Monday to remove the inventory of K2 and salvia before fines begin. Currently, the department is working to inform businesses of the change in law.
At the meeting, Rushin said the department will use every means necessary to get the word out, but police have a lot of ground to cover as they have seen a large increase of vendors selling the products in the last month. While the city council speculated that some of the increase might have occurred since Allen and McKinney banned the drugs, Rushin said the added media coverage also helped in making more people aware of and curious about the products.
“It is our job to be concerned with public health and safety,” Rushin said. “There is a lag time with state legislation when drugs like K2 are introduced in an area, so it was important for us to get ahead of it before it becomes an issue.”
Rushin had presented the department’s finding on the drugs during the June 28 city council meeting. During that meeting, he had expressed concern over the ability to enforce any type of ordinance against the drugs because efficient lab tests were not available to the city. Fortunately, between the two meetings they were able to find a testing solution.
The department was able to find a lab in Pennsylvania that would do the tests for $338. It is currently working with local labs to find a way to get the tests done cheaper here.
Since the department does not have field tests for K2 or salvia, it means anything confiscated would have to first be sent to the testing lab to determine if it contains the banned chemicals. It could take up to two weeks to complete the test, and if a sample should return positive for K2 chemicals, police would pursue charges against the individual.
K2 and salvia are distinctly different types of drugs. While both are marketed as “not for human consumption” and for aromatherapy, the two drugs, when smoked, produce different effects.
K2 is generally made up of various dried plants that have been coated with a chemical that bears many similarities to tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, which is the chemical in marijuana that produces the intoxication. Because the chemicals in K2 are similar to those in marijuana, smoking K2 produces many of the same effects that marijuana does.
Since K2 is so new, studies into its effects on people have not occurred yet; however, Plano police have responded to two different incidents where they believe K2 caused an adverse reaction.
Salvia bears a much more natural origin; it comes from the plant Salvia Divinorum, which belongs to the group of plants known as sage. While the plant can be found in many ornamental gardens because it produces a purple flower, it was first known to the Mexican Mazatec Indians, who used it in certain ceremonies.
The plant has psychoactive properties similar to the drug LSD. According to Rushin’s report, Salvinorin A, which is the chemical component found in the plant that produces the intoxication effect, was determined to be one of the strongest natural hallucinogens known to man when it was identified in the 1990s.
The ordinance does make an exception for people who are growing Salvia Divinorum plant in their gardens. As long as the plant is used for the sole purpose of ornamental landscaping, it does not break the ordinance.
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