TRENTON — Legislation aimed at criminalizing "bath salts," synthetic powders that mimic the effects of methamphetamines but also cause users to suffer severe physical and mental side effects, inched one step closer to Gov. Chris Christie’s desk Thursday. "Pamela’s Law," named in memory of a slain Rutgers senior whose alleged killer may have been abusing the drug, cleared the...
Legislation aimed at criminalizing "bath salts," cleared the Assembly Judiciary Committee 5-1 this morning.
TRENTON — Legislation aimed at criminalizing "bath salts," synthetic powders that mimic the effects of methamphetamines but also cause users to suffer severe physical and mental side effects, inched one step closer to Gov. Chris Christie’s desk Thursday.
"Pamela’s Law," named in memory of a slain Rutgers senior whose alleged killer may have been abusing the drug, cleared the Assembly Judiciary Committee 5-1 this morning.
"This is clearly the right thing to do, and hopefully we’ll get it to the governor’s desk within the next week," said Assemblyman John McKeon (D-Essex) who sponsored an Assembly version of the bill earlier this year. "We will codify current Attorney General’s office policy and be in a position to prevent future tragedies like the one that claimed the life of Pamela Schmidt."
Today’s action reconciled McKeon’s bill with legislation sponsored by state Sen. John Girgenti (D-Passaic) that aims to make possession or sale of the six chemicals used to cook bath salts a third-degree narcotics crime punishable a five-year prison term.
Dealers caught with more than an ounce of MDPV, mephedrone or other chemicals used to manufacture the powders could face up to ten years in state prison under "Pamela’s Law." The Division of Consumer Affairs enacted an emergency order earlier this year banning the six chemicals, and a public hearing to make that ban permanent is scheduled for July, officials have said.
The bill, which has traveled quickly through the Senate and Assembly, met some opposition from Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris), who said the state’s law enforcement first approach to other street drugs and substance abuse issues has yielded little success.
"Science keeps inventing new ways to make people feel good and then we rush off to ban them … I’m not really certain that the criminal law is the way to go on these things," said Carroll, who cast the lone "no" vote against the bill. "Locking people up for taking substances that are perfectly legal in other states doesn’t strike me as a good expenditure of taxpayer funds."
McKeon scoffed at Carroll’s claims, saying "Under that philosophy we might as well say it’s fine to commit domestic violence because it’s going to take up a lot of cops' time."
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