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JUNEAU -- Alaska legislators were to take up a bill Friday that would ban a few substances sold over the counter and marketed as bath salts, which are a variety of chemical compounds that mimic effects of popular illicit drugs like cocaine and ecstasy.
The Senate Judiciary Committee was to hear SB140, a bill co-sponsored by Republicans Kevin Meyer and Cathy Giessel, both of Anchorage, and Democrat Donald Olson from Nome. Long-term side effects of bath salts are relatively unknown because few studies have been conducted. The Alaska Legislature criminalized the similarly unknown synthetic marijuana last year, which was often packaged as incense and sold over the counter. Anchorage Police Chief Mark Mew said the same is needed for bath salts during this session. "We have a misdemeanor ordinance (in Anchorage) for bath salts, but it really needs to be a felony," which would be the effect of listing bath salts on the state's schedule of controlled substances, he said. Legislators in statehouses across the country are pushing for criminalization of the chemical substances that compose bath salts, and a federal bill cleared the U.S. House and is pending in the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. The Drug Enforcement Agency also exercised emergency scheduling authority last October to control some of the substances in question while federal legislation develops.