Tough Laws Asked to Fight ‘Designer Drugs’
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is proposing tougher laws to combat so-called designer drugs, Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III said Wednesday, with prison terms and fines of up to 15 years and $250,000 for those who sell them.
Synthetic designer drugs on the illegal drug market are just different enough in their chemical makeup not to fall under the jurisdiction of present drug laws.
Meese said also that the Drug Enforcement Administration on Wednesday exercised its emergency powers to temporarily ban two designer drugs, MPPP and PEPAP, which are linked to Parkinson’s disease.
“We feel that we need this new legislation†to amend the Controlled Substances Act to get the drugs within “the reach of the regulatory scheme--and criminal penalties,†Meese said.
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