BRISTOL, Va. – The Senate of Virginia unanimously passed a bill Friday that would criminalize synthetic marijuana being sold as “herbal incense” in gas stations and head shops across the state.
The Senate legislation would treat synthetic pot similar to the real thing, although without adding it to the list of scheduled drugs. Possession and possession with intent to distribute less than a half ounce would be a class 1 misdemeanor, which carries a sentence of up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine. Manufacturing and possession with intent to distribute more than a half ounce would be a felony.
At least 12 bills dealing with synthetic marijuana were introduced in the current session of the General Assembly and folded into two – the Senate legislation passed Friday and a similar bill still awaiting a vote in the House of Delegates.
The House bill, unlike the Senate legislation, would make synthetic marijuana a schedule 1 controlled substance, the highest level of scheduling reserved for those drugs with a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use. Marijuana and heroin are schedule 1 drugs. Cocaine is a schedule 2 drug, along with morphine and opium, because of limited medical use as a local anesthetic.
Either of the two bills, if approved and signed into law by the governor, would make it illegal beginning July 1 to buy, sell or possess any of the various chemical compounds sprayed onto dried leaves and packaged as K2, Spice, the Happy Shaman, Scooby Snax or the dozens of other brand names.
cgalofaro@bristolnews.com
(276) 645-2531
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