AG Issues Order to Minot Store - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

AG Issues Order to Minot Store

A Minot retail store has been ordered to stop selling synthetic products the state considers dangerous.  Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem says in a sting operation yesterday, employees of Hemp Horizons of Minot sold several packages of a synthetic street drug alternative, telling the undercover agent the drugs tasted good.

The attorney general says the packaging clearly said the product was not for human consumption.

The move came one day after Stenehjem issued a warning to stores across the state to stop selling the synthetic drugs that have proven to be harmful, even fatal.

As Jon Berg reports, the attorney general appeared before the state Board of Pharmacy today, asking the group to add the products to the list of controlled substances that cannot be sold. "I reached the conclusion that we cannot wait, even three or four months until the session of the legislature comes in because, the lives and health of citizens in North Dakota and especially our young people are at stake," North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said.

Under the list of controlled substances --- possession and sale of these products will be a felony once this rule takes effect --- Which Stenehjem thinks will happen by the end of November or very first part of December.

"In fact Marijuana possession is a misdemeanor and these cases they'll be under schedule one, where possession or sale is a felony not a misdemeanor, so it will be more severe than Marijuana," Stenehjem said.

Because these synthetics can sometimes be even more dangerous than a drug like marijuana.

"The consequences for taking many of these substances, the health effects is more severe than taking the actual substance, dangerous they may be that they seek to mimic, so this is a dangerous situation," Stenehjem said.

The legislature has given approval to the Board of Pharmacy to add these synthetics to the list of controlled substances on an emergency basis.

"So that's the process the board is about to undertake is schedule on an emergency basis all of those substances here in North Dakota," Stenehjem said.

In Bismarck, Jon Berg, KX News.

The board voted unanimously to ADD synthetics to the list --- and in a matter of weeks it will be illegal to not only sell the synthetic drugs, but also to have possession of them.

Two Grand Forks-area teens died this fall after ingesting synthetic drugs.