Anchorage Municipal Prosecutor Cynthia Franklin says what you don't know may kill you when it comes to synthetic drugs.
"These chemists are just making this stuff up, and it’s sending people to the hospital, and it's sending them to the morgue," she said Friday.
Franklin is referring to drugs like K-2, spice, and bath salts. All drugs that are for the most part manufactured and not grown.
In 2011, Governor Sean Parnell signed a law restricting the sale of synthetic pot. Anchorage was the first jurisdiction in the state to pass an ordinance against the sale and distribution of such synthetic drugs.
Enforcement has been difficult, as manufacturers have changed the ingredients of the drugs. Sen. Kevin Meyer (R-Anchorage), one of the original sponsors of the 2011 law, said he’s open to strengthening it.
Now a new ordinance being taken up by the Anchorage Assembly would require spice manufacturers to describe exactly what's in their products on labels and packaging. The ordinance would also ban those labels from being misleading.
Franklin says local smoke shops have marketed these products to unsuspecting customers as incense or potpourri.
"We have a list of them, and they know who they are,” she said. “We know of at least 23 of them who are selling it.”
Those caught selling spice would be fined no less than $500 under the new ordinance.
The effects of the drugs are startling.
In June 2012 a 42-year-old registered sex offender was arrested after police said he sexually assaulted a woman he was smoking spice with in downtown Anchorage’s town square.
"I’ve been on many medic assists in the downtown area, mainly Town Square Park, where we've had people be everywhere from passed out comatose to irrational, combative, suicidal," said APD Officer Mark Karstetter.
Franklin believes a stronger ordinance would encourage stores to stop carrying synthetic drugs. More importantly, he said a tougher law would protect the public.
"I have a 19 year old son, and what I tell him is, you might as well pull up some dead grass from the yard, lay it out on a piece of newspaper, take everything out under the kitchen sink, spray it, let it dry, and smoke it,” Franklin said. “Because that's how much you know about what's in this stuff."
Public comment on the proposed ordinance will take place at the January 14th Anchorage Assembly meeting.