Congresswoman Eleanor Norton

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) thanked the D.C. Council for passing a law banning synthetic marijuana, or K2, on Tuesday, the same day she visited a protest in front of an Exxon station near Springarn High School in Northeast, and got an agreement from the gas station’s manager to stop selling the drug. Norton said that the Council’s passage of the K2 ban removes any doubt – or excuse – about selling the drug. The Exxon manager with whom Norton spoke said he was relying on a list of 39 jurisdictions that had banned the substance, which he got from the Internet. D.C. was not on that list because, at the time, the Council had not passed its ban. But Norton told him that a federal law strengthening the laws against such synthetic substances had been signed into law by President Obama in July.

The Congresswoman said the point of the Council passing the bill is not to jail teenagers who are often drawn to the colorful packaging and names like “Scooby Snax”, which are meant to increase the drug’s appeal to them. “The primary purpose of the law is to stop the sale of K2 to kids as young as 13 at gas stations, corner stores, and other locations,” Norton said. “As long as K2 was legal to buy and sell under District law, many of the city’s most vulnerable young people were in danger of the many effects of the drug, which have been compared to LSD and have caused psychotic episodes or other serious problems that are sending youngsters to emergency rooms.

Norton said that the way to protect young people is for the city to now publicize that the drug is now illegal under local and federal law for a reason – its harmful effects – and to use media that young people use, like Facebook, to explain those effects.

Don’t miss Roll Call’s story “Eleanor Holmes Norton, Drug Warrior” - http://hoh.rollcall.com/eleanor-holmes-norton-drug-warrior/

Click here to see photos of the K2 packaging: http://twitpic.com/bjmn92

Published: December 6, 2012