Synthetic Drug Use

Floor Speech

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, in the fall of 2010 I came to this Chamber to speak about my growing concern of synthetic drug use in this country.

Specifically, I raised concerns about a popular new drug known as K2, or Spice, and I learned about this myself for the first time because a constituent of mine by the name of David Rozga committed suicide. David killed himself shortly after smoking a package of the drug he and some friends bought at a local shopping mall.

At the time, David's death in June 2010 was one of the first associated with what was a new and very dangerous drug craze. Nearly 2 years after David's death, the use of synthetic drugs like K2 has exploded and is becoming a major problem across the country.

In 2009 the American Association of Poison Centers reported only 13 calls concerning synthetic drug use. One year later, in 2010, over 1,300 calls were made to poison centers about synthetic drugs. So I have gone from 2009 to 2010, and now 2011. We have gone from 13 to 1,300 to last year, 12,000 calls to poison centers regarding synthetic drugs.

The Monitoring the Future Survey, a survey of high school youth, asked students for the first time last year if they ever tried synthetic drugs. Roughly one in nine high school seniors responded they used synthetic drugs last year.

These numbers are quite obviously an astonishing increase in just 2 years and they illustrate, of course, how rapidly the use of these drugs has come on the scene. These drugs are having a terrible effect on those who use them. Emergency room doctors across the country are reporting increasing uses of synthetic drugs in the number of users coming to the hospital.

My staff heard from one such doctor from upstate New York about what she has seen. Dr. Sandra Schneider, from Rochester, NY, reported that users in her ER experienced psychotic episodes, rapid heart rate, very high blood pressure, and seizures. In some cases, users--many of whom were in their teens and twenties--suffered heart attacks and strokes and died as a result. Other cases involved users who tried to kill themselves, harm others, or got into a car accident while high on these synthetic drugs.

How do we get from practically no use to where we are now? The people who manufacture and sell these drugs have circumvented the laws to easily sell synthetic drugs online, at gas stations, in novelty stores at the local shopping malls, and in tobacco stores and other shops. Many of the drugs are manufactured overseas, in countries such as China, and then imported into the United States. They spray chemical compounds, that have not been tested on humans and were not intended for human consumption, on dried leaves. They package and market these drugs to appear as legitimate products such as incense, bath salts, plant food, and snow remover. They slap a label on these packages stating that the product is not for human consumption to get around FDA regulations.

Over 30 States have passed laws to ban various synthetic drug compounds. The Drug Enforcement Administration has also acted to stop these drugs. Although the DEA has used its emergency scheduling powers to control seven chemical compounds, there are too many on the market now for DEA to go through the long and laborious process to schedule each and every one. The makers of these drugs know this as well and have altered their chemical formulas--some as little as a molecule--to get around existing State and Federal laws.

This is exactly the case in my home State of Iowa. Iowa passed a law last year that banned many chemical compounds. However, the law only listed a specific set of chemical compounds and the drugmakers are now altering their formulas.

Recently, two Iowa youths have become victims of the new drugs. One is a Polk County teenager who got into a high-speed crash smoking a product called 100 Percent Pure Evil.

This teen had two other passengers in her car. After smoking this product the driver became agitated and stated she wanted to kill herself. She started driving her car into several trees. When paramedics arrived at the scene they reported that everyone was badly hurt and the driver was vomiting blood. Thankfully all passengers survived the crash.

Another teen in central Iowa experienced a near-death experience after smoking the same product. This teen purchased the product--remember the name, 100 Percent Pure Evil--purchased it at a local store and started convulsing and vomiting shortly after smoking the drug. Once a paramedic got this boy into the hospital he fell into a coma. He, however, awoke from the coma the next day but had failed to recognize his mother or grandmother at the hospital. Thankfully this boy has since recovered his memory. Now he suffers occasional anxiety attacks.

When the boy's mother told the police about the product and where he got it, she reported that the police told her there was nothing they could do about it because it was not known what was in the product and it may be legal. This product is still being reviewed to see if any compounds fall under Iowa's law.

Nearly a year ago I introduced this legislation we named after the person who died 2 years ago, David Rozga. I introduced this bill with Senator Feinstein. It bans the chemicals that comprise K2/Spice. We designed the legislation to capture a wide variety of compounds so it would not be so easy to circumvent this law by altering the molecule. In fact, the Iowa Governor's Office of Drug Control Policy is crafting new legislation based on the legislation I introduced last year that captures more substances. My legislation was unanimously passed out of the Judiciary Committee 8 months ago. It is currently being prevented from consideration by the full Senate by one Senator. The House of Representatives passed its version of the Synthetic Drug Control Act overwhelmingly last December, with over 70 percent of the Representatives supporting scheduling these drugs.

Many of the opponents of this legislation stated on the House floor that by scheduling these compounds we are preventing scientific research. This is far from true. Any scheduled substance, even current Schedule I drugs such as cocaine and heroin, can be researched. Any scientist can apply to be registered by the DEA to research any drug. Just because we are removing the drugs from the store shelves does not mean we cannot study them.

I say to my colleagues, it is now time for the Senate to take action. We cannot let the will of one Senator obstruct the will of many. I believe if our legislation received a vote and a fair debate in this body, it would pass overwhelmingly. So I urge my colleagues to support our efforts to get these drugs off the store shelves and off the streets, and I urge the Senate leadership to allow a debate and a vote on the issue. The American people, people such as the Rozga family and others who have been victims of these drugs, want to see this poison removed from their communities.

I appreciate working together with the Senator from Minnesota and the Senator from New York on this bill and similar bills as well.

I yield the floor.

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