OUR VIEW: Legislature’s work to stop use of drugs good for SD

• OUR VIEW

OUR VIEW

Talk about it

We just don’t understand the intense interest some people have in ingesting illegal drugs. When states like Colorado move to legalize marijuana — even as the federal law against the drug still exists — it just befuddles us.

Same goes for synthetic drugs, which have gained so much in popularity in recent years. The so-called “bath salts” that are for sale over the Internet probably aren’t bath salts at all, but instead are some sort of ingestible drug that brings about one high or another.

Again, we don’t get it. Evidently, state policymakers feel the same way.

We know that state Attorney General Marty Jackley has worked lately to make synthetic drugs less accessible in South Dakota. We know the Legislature has followed suit.

Those “bath salts” used to be available in real stores in South Dakota just a few short years ago. Today, they’re banned, although some people still can find them on the Internet.

This week, the Legislature is working to further close drug loopholes in the state, and we’re glad to see it.

One measure in particular would add a set of definitions for “controlled substance analogues,” which are chemical combinations that only slightly vary from prescription or illegal drugs.

The analogues are designed to get around controlled-substance listings, and thereby elude government oversight or legal ramifications.

Despite the work of Jackley and the Legislature, drug manufacturers continue to seek those loopholes, and we urge the Legislature to keep closing them.

These drugs are serious business. Many are manufactured with fancy names that do nothing to describe their effect, and kids are purchasing and using them — sometimes, we assume, under the idea that the drugs are legal.

It’s dangerous, and the Legislature, law-enforcement personnel and parents must be ever vigilant.

Tags: opinion, updates, editorials, drugs