San Diego cracks down on ‘spice’

Reporting from San Diego —  San Diego is cracking down on the powerful street drug “spice” with an innovative law that city officials predict will become a model across California.

The City Council on Monday unanimously approved the law, which aims to reverse a sharp increase in spice overdoses by helping local law enforcement prosecute street dealers and small neighborhood markets that sell the drug.

A chemical compound sometimes sold in packages marked as bath salts or potpourri, spice provides a quicker and more intense high than marijuana.

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“Users often view [it] as legal and a safe alternative to unlawful drugs,” Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman said. “The unpredictability of the potency of synthetic drugs, combined with the changing chemical structure with which they are made, makes it a game of Russian roulette.”

Zimmerman was referring to the makers of spice circumventing a 2011 state ban by steadily adjusting the ingredients they use to stay one step ahead of authorities. That prevented San Diego from prosecuting two spice dealers arrested in November in connection with a surge in local overdoses.

The law approved this week aims to stop that cycle by shifting the focus away from the ingredients in spice to how it affects the brain.

Asst. City Atty. John Hemmerling said the ordinance, which was crafted with help from chemists and doctors, also broadens the compounds that qualify as spice by listing several underlying chemical structures with various potential ingredients included.

“We believe we have come up with an ordinance that helps hold businesses and sellers of this product accountable,” Hemmerling said.

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City Atty. Jan Goldsmith agreed, calling the law the “first of its kind in California” combating spice.

“Sometimes it’s a cat and mouse when you’re dealing with criminal activity,” Goldsmith said. “This ordinance is designed to eliminate that cat and mouse and just make it illegal for anyone who sells this type of material.”

Spice, which costs $15 to $20 for a package, is sold under product names such as Scooby Snax, Purple Haze and Diablo. Its psychological effects have been compared with cocaine, marijuana, ecstasy and methamphetamine. It can cause panic attacks, paranoia, psychotic episodes, seizures, vomiting and even death.

Many small markets selling the drug voluntarily stopped when asked by the city last winter. But officials said many haven’t.

Goldsmith said he was optimistic about the new law, despite its lack of a track record.

“Certainly there could be challenges since this is new to the state of California,” he said. “We’ve reviewed other states where this has been used and they have been upheld.”

The law must be approved by the council a second time two weeks from now, and would go into effect 30 days later in early July.

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david.garrick@sduniontribune.com

Garrick writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.