Reason magazine has a nice overview of a bill recently reintroduced by Senators Chuck Grassley and Dianne Feinstein. The official title of the bill is the ‘Saving Kids from Dangerous Drugs Act’ but has taken on another name due to its focus, ‘the candy-flavored meth bill’.
Senator Chuck Grassley has introduced two pieces of legislation, along with Senator Dianne Feinstein, to help keep drugs out of the hands of kids. The Senators introduced legislation that would penalize drug dealers who market candy-flavored meth and other drugs to children. They also introduced legislation to clarify provisions of the 2005 Combat Methamphetamine Enforcement Act (Combat Meth Act) by requiring distributors of meth precursor chemicals to certify that they only distribute products to retailers that comply with the 2005 law.
“It’s disturbing that drug dealers are trying to lure teens and young kids by flavoring drugs to taste like candy. This latest craze needs to be dealt with before it’s too late,” Grassley said. “We’ve also got to make sure our law enforcement has the tools they need to adequately enforce the laws we pass. The legislation that Senator Feinstein and I have introduced should make drug dealers think twice about selling candy flavored drugs to our kids and help law enforcement keep the Combat Meth Act effective.”
Sounds perfectly reasonable, can’t have mean ol’ drug pushers targeting kiddies with their Lik-M-Aid methamphetamines. Except nobody has actually provided a sample of flavored meth. That’s right kids, this bill is targeting a “craze” that doesn’t exist. Even the DEA seems to be scratching their heads on this one.
“There are a lot of people in prevention and law enforcement talking about it, but in terms of actual seizures we haven’t seen much,” said Tom Riley, a spokesperson for ONDCP. Rojean White, a spokesperson for the DEA, told Join Together that while local DEA agents have heard stories about flavored meth from local law-enforcement colleagues, they “haven’t had any” seizures themselves.
Best anyone can figure, this is the result of confusion on the part of local police agencies who just assume colored meth (which is common) is somehow flavored. Reminds me of when I was a kid and we had D.A.R.E. cops warning us of temporary tattoos laced with LSD, another total fabrication turned urban legend. Government at work… who needs American Idol?
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