Tinley Park eyes designer drug rules

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Updated: March 11, 2012 8:38AM

Tinley Park soon will add a new law to its books that prohibits the sale and possession of designer drugs.

A proposed ordinance would ban nearly 300 synthetic marijuana strands and stimulants from being sold in the village.

The village’s public safety committee approved the measure during Tuesday night’s meeting, authorizing the village attorney to draft a local ordinance prohibiting the drugs.

The Illinois Legislature has enacted several laws making the synthetic stimulants illegal. Tinley Park’s ordinance, however, would give village officials local power in cases of extenuating circumstances not covered by state law.

One of those instances would be if a vendor were selling the drugs in town unaware that they were illegal synthetic drugs. The local ordinance would give the village discretion to relax fines and fees on the unwitting offender.

Synthetics are psychoactive stimulants produced overseas, and typically sold over the Internet or in retail shops. The drugs first came on the scene in Europe in 2004 and have flooded the U.S. in recent years. Several federal drug-control agencies have conducted studies determining them to be serious health hazards with potentially fatal effects.

The chemically produced herbal drugs, primarily produced in China, have become generically known as “K2” and “Spice.” But some of them are dubbed with more exotic names such as “Funky Monkey XXXX,” “Who Dat” and “Bad 2 the Bone.”

Tinley Park’s measure would give police the flexibility to charge people according to the local ordinance. The ordinance, which is expected to require a lower standard of evidence for prosecution, also will save the village money by eliminating lab analysis costs.

In the last two years, Tinley Park’s police department has assigned a task force to periodically check retailers for the drugs. Those inspections have turned up “questionable” synthetics and drug paraphernalia, according to a committee memo. Village officials say the routine checks will continue.

Once the ordinance is written, it goes before the village board for final approval. Officials expect the draft to be completed within two weeks and hit the agenda for a preliminary review by March 6.