Novi Police Urge Retailers Not to Sell Synthetic Marijuana

—Submitted by the Novi Police Department

Last week, Novi police officers visited all retail party stores, gas stations, drug stores and tobacco shops throughout the community. The visits were proactive approach to determine if any of these outlets were selling K2 or other synthetic
drug products. Officers were pleased to find no Novi establishments are selling or offering for sale these substances.

K2, or synthetic marijuana, is sold as incense or potpourri. The material is a mixture of herbs and spices, sprayed with a synthetic similar to THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. Ingredients can vary widely as can the potency. The street names for it are Spice Gold; Spice Silver; Spice Diamond; Fire & Ice; Yucatan Fire; Genie; Pep Spice; Blue Lotus; among others. These drugs are marketed “not for human consumption” in an attempt to avoid Federal and State law (The Federal Analog Act, among others), and sometimes marketed as incense.

To help combat this problem, the Michigan Legislature has a package of bills pending that would the newly discovered or formulated substances that are being sold.

Novi’s Director of Public Safety/Chief of Police David Molloy is proud of the partnerships established with Novi businesses and urges retailers to continue to pledge not to sell these substances and products. Novi will encourage retailers to partner with Oakland County and notify them that they will not sell synthetic drugs and obtain a window decal identifying their store as a place for customers to shop safe from these dangerous substances.

“Novi takes this problem very seriously and we look to the leadership on the State and Federal level to enact legislation banning these dangerous products,” said Molloy in a press release.

Police Chiefs in Northville, Canton and Plymouth townships will send letters to nearly 100 businesses in the area, "warning they could face criminal or civil penalties if they sell an increasingly popular and dangerous drug commonly known as 'K2, Spice, Bath Salts,'" according to a statement from Northville's police department.

Oakland County has launched a website that will operate around the clock for retailers that want to pledge not to sell synthetic marijuana and other drugs. In return, as part of the initiative announced last Friday by Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson and Sheriff Michael Bouchard, retailers will receive a window decal that will inform their customers that their store is safe from dangerous synthetic drugs.