Tougher penalties for trafficking in synthetic drugs won approval Tuesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
A bill that would equate drugs manufactured to imitate illegal narcotics to their controlled substance counterparts must now pass the Finance Committee and both houses of the General Assembly in order to become law.
The bill, which would cost an estimated $499,400 per additional incarceration, would make the manufacture or sale of synthetic drugs anywhere from a Class B to E felony, depending on the drug’s similarity to its controlled substance counterpart. These crimes are currently Class A misdemeanors.
Simple possession of these synthetic drugs would be elevated to a Class A misdemeanor.
If passed, the bill would combat synthetic, lab-created drugs that can be commonly sold in gas stations and convenience stores. These substances, commonly known as “analogues,” can have the same effects as drugs like marijuana, Ecstasy, and cocaine.
The proposed law “puts sellers on notice that what they think is legal to sell may be a controlled substance analogue,” said Sen. Mae Beavers, R-Mt Juliet, the committee chairwoman.
“[It] attacks the plague that is synthetic drugs in two ways,” she said of an amendment to the bill. “It’s designed to capture present synthetic drugs or designer drugs in the future by defining controlled substance analogue.”
Use of synthetic analogues, technically sold under the presumption they will not be consumed, has become a growing issue in Tennessee and the U.S. A 2010 federal report showed a dramatic increase in calls to local poison centers about materials labeled as incense. The state poison center reported last year that these calls have gone from a few calls a week to five a day since the summer of 2010.
