While some business owners may think there is nothing dangerous about selling synthetic marijuana — since it is not real marijuana — those owners should think twice as it is illegal in Minnesota and officials are cracking down.
Recently, two men from Faribault and one from Minneapolis were charged with one felony count of sale of synthetic cannabinoids and one misdemeanor count of possession of synthetic cannabinoids. Each face up to five years in jail and a $10,000 fine, along with having a felony sale charge on their criminal records.
The charges against these three men come after an undercover informant for the Rice County Drug Task Force walked into a Faribault store and purchased synthetic products labeled “King Kush Smells Like Money” and “Zero Gravity.”
After the confidential informant made the buy, the products were sent to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension for testing. Days later, one of the packages came back as testing positive for containing a DEA Schedule I controlled substance.
The Rice County Drug Task Force ended up executing a search warrant at the store where 188 packages were seized. These packages supposedly contained synthetic marijuana.
The Minneapolis man who was charged said he is the one who owns all of the product in the store. His claim is that while they were at one point selling synthetic marijuana, due to another store in Mankato getting busted, he was planning on returning the product.
However, his story does not completely match up with one of the Faribault man’s stories, who claims synthetic marijuana was never sold in the store.
Looking to the future, officials in the state of Minnesota will continue to crackdown on those places allegedly selling synthetic marijuana. With some users of the synthetics supposedly becoming quite sick — and even going into convulsions — getting these products off of store shelves has clearly become a priority for many police departments and drug task forces.
As this case goes to show, officials cracking down can end up leading to synthetic drug charges. In those cases where a business owner — or worker — is charged with selling or possessing illegal products, the consequences can be quite serious and could end up leading to a the shut down of certain businesses.
Source: Faribault Daily News, “Synthetic drug charges filed in Faribault tobacco store raid,” Rebecca Rodenborg, June 3, 2013