Klobuchar Statement on New Report Regarding Teen Use of Synthetic Drugs

Press Release

U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar made the following statement today after a new report by the National Institutes of Health showed that one in nine U.S. high school seniors surveyed admitted to using synthetic marijuana during the year. Klobuchar said the survey is a call to action to pass bipartisan legislation that would ban harmful synthetic substances including synthetic marijuana, bath salts, and 2C-E, which led to the death of a Minnesota teenager and hospitalized several others earlier this year.

"This troubling study is a call to action that we must pass bipartisan legislation to ban dangerous synthetic drugs before they put more lives in danger," said Klobuchar. "These new designer drugs are taking lives and tearing apart families in Minnesota and across the country and we need to take swift action to give law enforcement the tools they need to address this growing problem."

Klobuchar, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) have led the effort in the U.S. Senate to ban harmful chemicals in synthetic drugs that have taken lives and injured many others. Klobuchar is a cosponsor of two pieces of legislation that respectively ban synthetic marijuana and bath salts. Klobuchar's Combating Designer Drugs Act of 2011 would ban the substance known as 2C-E, a synthetic hallucinogen, and eight other similar substances. Klobuchar introduced the legislation this past March after a Minnesota teenager died and ten others were hospitalized after overdosing on 2C-E. After Klobuchar introduced the bill, Maple Grove police determined that another Minnesotan died connected to the use of synthetic marijuana.

In September, Klobuchar hosted a roundtable on synthetic drugs with U.S. Drug Control Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske and Minnesota law enforcement leaders. The discussion focused on efforts to curb the sale and use of dangerous synthetic drugs and highlighted how federal, state, and local leaders can work together to solve the problem. The following week, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced its decision to ban three chemicals commonly found in synthetic drugs known as "bath salts."

Klobuchar is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, which has jurisdiction over issues relating to drug control policy, and she has been a leader in strengthening drug safety standards to protect consumers.

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