Political Quotes

“I certainly appreciate the support of Mr. Pitts and Mr. Pallone for their leadership on this issue. It's deeply appreciated. This issue of synthetic or designer drugs was first brought to my attention by a woman, a mother in my district whose son had been abusing legal substitutes for marijuana. These synthetic cannabinoids, as they're referred to, or synthetic marijuana, affect the brain in a manner similar to marijuana, but can actually be even much more harmful. Synthetic marijuana, or cannabinoids, are just one category of designer drugs. Even more potent substances have properties similar to cocaine, methamphetamine, LSD, and other hard street drugs. These substances are marketed as innocent products like bath salts, plant food, incense, and they're sold under brand names familiar to their users, such as K2 Spice, Vanilla Sky, or Ivory Wave. However, these are total misnomers designed to facilitate their legal sale. These drugs have no legitimate purpose, period. H.R. 1254, the Synthetic Drug Control Act, drafted in consultation with Federal law enforcement, has three principal components: First, a prohibition of broad structural classes of synthetic marijuana or the cannabinoids; Two, a prohibition of synthetic stimulants and other designer drugs, such as bath salts, mephedrone, MDPV, C2E, et cetera, several of those; Third, an expansion of the DEA's existing authority to temporarily ban a new substance from 1\1/2\ to 3 years.…”