Federal prohibitions on the sale of synthetic drugs would be strengthened under bipartisan legislation sponsored by U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) that the House approved on Monday.
The Dangerous Synthetic Drug Control Act, H.R. 3537, sponsored by Dent and U.S. Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), would add 22 synthetic substances frequently marketed as synthetic marijuana, bath salts or synthetic opioids to Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).
“I have been working for several years to bring attention to the very serious threat that synthetic drugs pose to the health and safety of communities in Pennsylvania and the nation as a whole, which is why I am ecstatic to see H.R. 3537 voted out of the House with bipartisan support,” Dent said. “Many of these drugs possess similar or even more harmful effects than other illegal drugs, like heroin or PCP, but they can be deceptively distributed through legal channels on the basis that their specific chemical compounds are not expressly prohibited.”
The bill identifies 22 substances deemed to be especially dangerous and highly abusive substances that have no therapeutic value or medicinal purposes by the DEA.
“This bill will expand the chemical compounds listed under the Controlled Substances Act to get the ‘worst of the worst’ offenders off the streets and will grant the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency greater authorities to stop these synthetic drugs from being sold, distributed and abused,” Dent said.
Modifications of these drugs’ chemical formulas have enabled overseas manufacturers to continue marketing them in the United States, Dent added, even though they’re often more dangerous than drugs they’re designed to mimic.
“My district was rocked earlier this month by the news of a gruesome murder in Bethlehem involving a man who had ingested a synthetic drug known as flakka,” Dent said. “(Monday’s) bipartisan passage of my bill will help prevent future tragedies from devastating our communities and properly classify these substances as the dangerous and illegal products that they really are.”