Board of Pharmacy to consider additional synthetic drug bans

The North Dakota Board of Pharmacy will hold a meeting at the end of the month to consider banning more chemicals used in synthetic drug alternatives.

More than two years ago, the pharmacy board used an emergency rule to outlaw seven chemicals being used to make synthetic versions of common street drugs. But chemists tweaked their formulas to circumvent those rules and similar ones in other states, and more synthetic alternatives to illegal drugs hit the streets.

The North Dakota Legislature added more substances to the law during its 2011 session. But Charlene Schweitzer, a forensic scientist at the North Dakota State Crime Laboratory, said she was testing new substances not covered within three weeks of the laws Aug. 1, 2011, enactment.

North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said a steady stream of people who used the substances have ended up in hospitals with symptoms including racing hearts, elevated blood pressure, paranoia, agitation, nausea and vomiting. Doctors dont know the ingredients of the substances smoked, injected or otherwise consumed by their patients and thus dont always know how to help them.

Stenehjem asked the pharmacy board on Thursday to again use emergency rules to ban additional substances identified at the state crime lab and other labs throughout the country.

Schweitzer said substances of similar chemical structures to some of the known synthetic drugs should be outlawed because chemists are altering them slightly to skirt the law. The chemicals involved include cannabinoids, or chemicals that mimic the effects of marijuana, stimulants and hallucinogens.

The pharmacy board unanimously approved a process to ban the drugs. The board will hold a Nov. 30 meeting to consider an emergency rule to broaden the states synthetic drug ban. If Gov. Jack Dalrymple approves of the process and the board passes the ban, the rules will be filed with the Legislative Council and will go into effect. The board will have to hold a public hearing within 60 days of the filing before making the rules permanent.

After the board first outlawed some of the synthetic drug alternatives in 2010, judges threw out cases of people charged before the emergency rules became permanent, saying the public had not been given enough notice of the changes.

Stenehjem said his office would work with the pharmacy board to make sure that doesnt happen this time around if the emergency rule is passed.

Assistant Attorney General Edward Erickson said the notice of the Nov. 30 meeting will be posted on the attorney generals website, the pharmacy boards website and will be distributed to known sellers of the substances. If the rules are adopted, notice will be filed with the Legislative Council, posted on the attorney generals and pharmacy boards websites, and advertised with all of the states newspapers. The rule would go into effect when filed with the Legislative Council.

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Board of Pharmacy to consider additional synthetic drug bans