By LESLIE COLLINS
Northeast News
November 18, 2013

Synthetic marijuana use is a growing problem in Kansas City.

“Every week I’m receiving phone calls from concerned citizens, parents, aunts, uncles about being hooked on synthetic narcotics and ending up in the hospital,” Sgt. Brad Dumit, who heads the Kansas City Police Department’s (KCPD) Vice Section, said during the city’s Nov. 7 Public Safety and Emergency Services Committee meeting.

KCPD, along with state and federal law enforcement agencies, partnered together to conduct a warrant sweep from Topeka to Kansas City, Mo., on Oct. 22. A total of 42 warrants were served, including six in Kansas City, Mo. Law enforcement agencies seized 9,500 grams of illegal synthetic marijuana, also known as K2, in Kansas City and seized $10,000 in cash. Across the state, $600,000 worth of K2 was seized and Kansas City made up about $100,000 of that.

Most recently, the  Millennium Super Stop, a package liquor store at 1501 Cleveland Ave., lost its liquor license for 90 days as a result of selling synthetic drugs.

“Really, you don’t know what you’re getting,” City Council member John Sharp said of purchasing synthetic marijuana. “You could buy it from the same store three times and those batches could all be different.”

“Absolutely,” Dumit said. “It’s not regulated; you have a lot of basement chemists putting these things together and you really don’t know what they’re putting into it. That’s the scary part. It isn’t the same.”

That means those using the substance will experience varying side effects and dangers each time, he said. Individuals have told Dumit they’ve done things they wouldn’t have normally done while smoking K2 and that they’d rather just “stick to regular drugs.”

K2 is masked as incense with packaging geared toward youth, like Scooby-Doo themes, and are typically sold in convenience stores, Dumit said.

“It’s all about making a dollar,” he said of stores illegally selling the drug.

KCPD is currently working with the city to create an ordinance that would mirror state statutes regarding possession and sales of synthetic marijuana. Passing a new city ordinance would add another tool to the tool belt, he said.

“We will continue to fight it,” Dumit said. “We don’t want it in our community, and we don’t want them selling it to our youth.”