In March, when Gov. Nathan Deal signed a law banning synthetic marijuana, David Burnett stood looking over his shoulder.
Just a few weeks earlier, Burnett’s 16-year-old son Chase drowned in his parents’ hot tub at their Fayette County home after smoking synthetic pot. His death was one of three in Georgia this year linked to the quasi-legal chemical, commonly known as K2 or Spice.
It wasn’t long, however, before distributors of the over-the-counter drug found ways around the ban, tweaking the product’s molecular structure. With Chase’s Law virtually neutered, the Georgia State Board of Pharmacy has issued repeated emergency rulings this summer reclassifying altered compounds as illegal Schedule I narcotics. But the legal jockeying has served only to slow the synthetic pot trade, not stop it.
“It’s sad and shameful our government won’t step up and do what’s morally correct,” said David Burnett, who vows to be the most persistent lobbyist under the Gold Dome when lawmakers return in January. His goal: an amended Chase’s Law with “zero loopholes.”
Burnett’s attorney, Kris Scheicher, said legislation prohibiting the sale of herbs treated with chemical additives seems the most direct way of thwarting the synthetic pot trade.
“They could also classify incense and potpourri as tobacco products,” said Scheicher, who wants the General Assembly to pass a law making the convenience stores who sell the substance criminally liable.
Burnett, wary of political gamesmanship, is urging lawmakers to coalesce early behind one bill.
“This should not be difficult,” he said. “You should be able to pass a law banning the sale of poison to children.”
Though packaged with a warning that it’s “not for human consumption,” synthetic pot has long been known as a cheap high — selling for as little as $5 a package — by teens and young adults. It remains largely undetected by drug tests but has become harder to buy Georgia because of a series of police raids that — temporarily, at least — rid the shelves of manufactured marijuana.
“We want Georgia to be on the leading edge of getting this stuff outlawed,” Burnett said. “I won’t be satisfied until that happens.”
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