A new drug recently made its way to Iowa and lawmakers are wasting no time getting it off the streets.
Rep. Clel Baudler, R-Greenfield, wants a new drug called Kratom made illegal as soon as possible.
Kratom is not the synthetic K2 drugs you've probably heard a lot about. Instead, this is a plant from Southeast Asia that's been around a long time in that region.
"It's a brand new drug for the U.S.," said Dr. Gregory Schmunk, Polk County Medical Examiner. "It's so new that even the federal government has not looked at regulating it yet. Although I think both the state and the federal government are going to move rapidly once we start to see the process build."
And that process is underway in Iowa. Two hours after he learned of the drug, Baudler called his staff and had them start writing legislation to make the drug illegal.
"I said I want the amendment ready on Monday," he said. "Whether we can get it done that quick or not I don't know."
Baudler wants to amendment the Kratom law to a bill that bans hundreds of compounds used to make K2. He says this fits that bill because they're all about fighting drugs.
Kratom is a hallucinogen, addictive, and can be life threatening.
"We have to get ahead of this thing before it gets out of hand," Baudler said.
Baudler says the bill needs to be perfected, but he hopes it can find the same amount of support as his work to fight K2.