Wasilla Spice ban fails

WASILLA — A failed effort to outlaw synthetic drugs known as Spice has left a bland aftertaste for Wasilla City Councilwoman Colleen Sullivan-Leonard.

The deputy mayor said she was surprised Monday evening when a proposed ordinance from Mayor Verne Rupright and Wasilla Police Chief Gene Belden failed to get enough votes from the council to ban the possession and sale of synthetic drugs in the city.

“When we had our public safety meeting a couple months ago … what I asked about was that we’re seeing with this uptick in crime; what’s causing this?” Sullivan-Leonard said. “They all said it was drug use.”

It’s also highly dangerous, Rupright said prior to Monday’s meeting. Because Spice is essentially herbal concoctions often labeled as “potpourri” and laced with various chemical mixtures, consumers really don’t know what they’re ingesting.

“Who know what’s in those particular mixtures?” he said. “It’s a health and safety issue. When somebody starts tinkering around with chemical additives, it can be bad.”

Although the ordinance failed, the vote was a close 3-2 in favor, but four votes were needed for approval. Voting for the regulation was David Wilson, Sullivan-Leonard and Gretchen O’Barr. Opposing the Spice ban was A.C. Buswell and Brandon Wall. Councilwoman Leone Harris wasn’t in attendance, but said she had she been there, she would’ve voted for the proposal.

“I feel very strongly about this issue,” she said, adding she was surprised the Spice ordinance didn’t have enough support without her vote.

While trying to curtail negative impacts Spice and potpourri have on a community is the driving force behind the ordinance, Wall said he had to vote against this particular law because its language is too broad.

“If what we’re doing with this ordinance is passing this broad legislation that makes a lot of things technically illegal, then it’s up to the police officer to determine what’s illegal or not,” he said.

Rupright’s proposed ordinance targets the packaging of Spice rather than specific chemicals used to create the synthetic drugs and is modeled after an ordinance recently enacted by the Municipality of Anchorage. In the first couple of months under its new law, Anchorage has run into problems, Wall said. In at least one case there, police dropped charges against a smoke shop clerk because the substance sold wasn’t illegal. Still, the citation remains on that person’s record.

“My understanding is there have been a lot of false citations, citations that have been given out that shouldn’t have been given out,” Wall said. “I spent a lot of time on this, a lot of time. I went back and listened to the Anchorage Assembly when they looked at this, and there wasn’t any comment from any of them about the language and it was a unanimous vote.”

That there are problems now in determining how to enforce what Wall calls an “over-broad ordinance” was inevitable, the councilman said.

“Maybe they thought there’s some magical unicorn fairy dust that will make this go away,” he said. “My point is, if you look around the organic section in stores or the supplement section in Walgreen’s, you’re going to find things that fall under that (proposed Wasilla) ordinance. It can apply to a lot of stuff outside of that (Spice category).”

Wall said he’s not against a Spice ordinance, but for him to support the ban the language needs changes. One is putting some accountability on the city for taking care of any false or mistakenly issued citations. Even if someone is given a citation and it’s thrown out, unless the city goes to the court and specifically asks for that to be removed from a person’s record, it stays on there as a closed case, he said.

“One of the things I’d like to see is some accountability,” Wall said. “If we’re issuing citations that are not appropriate … and somebody successfully defends that, I’d like to put it on the city as the city’s responsibility to get that off their record. I want to put the onus on the city that if one of these gets dismissed, it’s the city’s responsibility to purge all records of it.”

Language aside, Wasilla needs to do something to help address drug abuse in the city, and the growing popularity of synthetics is a concern, Sullivan-Leonard said.

“The synthetic drugs are abused in a way that is drug abuse,” she said. “It’s highly addictive.”

It’s also highly dangerous, because there’s no telling what chemicals someone could put in the Spice.

“It’s sprayed with this chemical substance that does such harm to the body that it’s unimaginable,” Sullivan-Leonard said. “As a good community member — I’m a mom. I have children and grandchildren, and I don’t want kids around this stuff. I thought what the mayor brought forward was a good ordinance, and I supported it.”

Sullivan-Leonard and Harris said they’re working together now to tweak the Spice ordinance to help address some of Wall’s and Buswell’s concerns and bring it back to the council in March.

Another prominent Valley organization, Mat-Su Health Foundation, also supports the Wasilla Spice ordinance. The group’s board of directors passed a resolution in support of the measure.

“We really looked at this thoughtfully,” said Elizabeth Ripley, MSHF executive director. “It’s in the scope of our new focus areas, and alcohol and substance abuse were rated as the No. 1 need in the Mat-Su Community Health Needs Assessment.”

Ripley’s referring to a study the foundation released in 2013 that shows Wasilla residents believe drug and alcohol abuse is the city’s top health issue.

“It’s a public safety issue, and I think that’s why the mayor and police chief are pushing for it,” she said. “Right now, they don’t have any mechanism for dealing with this issue, and these polices are effective. Very, very effective. We very much support it.”

That priority is shared throughout the Mat-Su, according to a survey of Mat-Su government agencies, health providers, school officials, tribal council, youth and others included in the 2013 Mat-Su Community Health Needs Assessment. Of those participating, 83 percent tabbed drug and alcohol abuse as their No. 1 or No. 2 health concerns. The next closest issue was child and youth abuse and violence, which saw 46 percent of respondents rank as their top two concerns.

Along with outlawing the sale and possession of Spice, the ordinance would have an added benefit of making it less accessible to the city’s children, Ripley said. Because the substance could not be sold in the city, it takes Spice out of the walking range of many middle and high school students.

“That’s a significant game-changer,” she said about that lack of access to synthetic drugs.

For Wall, he said his position may be unpopular, but he said it shouldn’t be the plan to pass the law and fix it later.

“It’s very possible that it gets introduced unchanged, and if it is unchanged, I’m going to stick to my guns against it,” he said.

Contact Greg Johnson at 352-2269 or greg.johnson@frontiersman.com.

A survey of Mat-Su government agencies, health providers, school officials, tribal councils, youth and others show that alcohol and substance abuse is by far the No. 1 health issue facing the Valley today. In the following information, those surveyed ranked their top five health issues.

• Alcohol and substance abuse: 83 percent ranked as No. 1 or No. 2.

• Child and youth abuse and violence: 46 percent ranked as No. 1 or No. 2.

• Access to mental health care: 21 percent ranked as No. 1 or No. 2.

• Depression and suicide: 21 percent ranked as No. 1 or No. 2.

• Domestic violence and sexual assault: 21 percent ranked as No. 1 or No. 2.

• Overweight and obesity: 17 percent ranked as No. 1 or No. 2.

• Access to medical care: 4 percent ranked as No. 1 or No. 2.

• Violent crime: 4 percent ranked as No. 1 or No. 2.

• Injury and cancer: 0 percent ranked as No. 1 or No. 2.

Source: Mat-Su Health Foundation 2013 Mat-Su Community Health Needs Assessment.