Trustees Agree to Ban of Synthetic Drugs

By this time next week, will likely have joined Aurora, Yorkville and Sugar Grove in banning synthetic drugs.

Trustees unanimously gave their support to banning so-called fake marijuana, along with other synthetic drugs, at their Tuesday Committee of the Whole meeting. The measure will come up for a vote at next Monday’s Village Board meeting, but will appear on the consent agenda, which all but guarantees its approval.

Montgomery’s ordinance was patterned on Aurora’s, and makes it illegal to sell, use or possess any product containing synthetic cannabis, stimulants or psychedelics and hallucinogens. The focus, however, is on fake marijuana, sometimes referred to as K2 or Spice, which is sold as potpourri (and marked not for human consumption) and then smoked.

Fake weed offers a more intense high than genuine marijuana, according to Police Chief Daniel Meyers.

However, the synthetic drug is made with chemicals that can cause dangerous side effects, Meyers said. He recommended a local ban after talking with other suburban police chiefs, and said local measures are more effective in this case than state and federal ones. (There is a federal ban in the works, and the Illinois one takes effect on Jan. 1, 2012.)

“The DEA and the state cannot get these passed quickly enough,” Meyers said. “Every time the feds or the state create a law, the people who manufacture this stuff change it just a bit, and the law becomes ineffective.”

Meyers said local law enforcement can keep an eye out for new variations of synthetic drugs, and add them to local ordinances more easily. He said these substances can be purchased at gas stations and convenience stores, and he knows of about four in the village who sell them now.

If the ban passes on Monday, he said, police will visit those locations and educate the owners on the dangers of synthetic drugs, he said.

Meyers noted that other municipalities are considering these bans as well, and said he doesn’t want to leave Montgomery as the safe haven.

“If we don’t ban it, they’ll just come to our town and purchase it,” Meyers said. “We have to make it illegal for them to possess and sell it.”

Village President Marilyn Michelini said she “agreed wholeheartedly” with Meyers. Trustee Stan Bond asked whether such a ban would affect pharmacies, and Meyers said it wouldn’t.

Tuesday’s news was music to Karen Dobner’s ears. Dobner, from Aurora, has been leading a crusade against synthetic drugs since June, when her 19-year-old son Max was . Max Dobner smoked a substance called iAroma, and his mother believes he began experiencing paranoid delusions or hallucinations.

He drove his car at nearly 100 miles per hour into a house in Batavia Township, and died on impact.

Dobner attended Tuesday’s meeting, along with Max’s grandmother, and said she was happy to see another community agreeing to a ban.

“We’re definitely working with other communities, and encouraging them to join us,” she said.

The Village Board will vote on the ban at Monday’s meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. at Village Hall, 200 N. River St.