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Fake pot often is sold in little packets or in small vials. They’re labeled as herbal incense, but people smoke the mixture as they would marijuana.
If passed, the ordinance will prohibit people in Tupelo from buying, selling, distributing, offering, using or having the product. Its most common name is Spice, but it's sold under more than a dozen different labels, including Genie and K2.
Violators could face up to $1,000 in fines and six months in jail, according to the ordinance.
Although sold as herbal incense, the products are sprayed with a chemical that mimics the effects of marijuana when ingested. Users smoke it and get high.
Tupelo Police Chief Tony Carleton had proposed the ban earlier this week after discovering its availability in the city. The Daily Journal had found it in at least one Tupelo convenience store, as well as in two tobacco shops just outside the city.
The ban would not affect the ability of stores outside Tupelo to sell the substance.
Spice and its equivalents are not yet regulated in the United States and are therefore still legal. But Tupelo leaders are following the lead of other municipalities by passing its own ban of the product.
Unlike most ordinances that require 30 days to take effect, though, the one banning Spice would become active immediately after passage.
It's currently on the council's study agenda, which means the council must first move it to the action agenda before voting on it. It typically takes two meetings before the vote occurs, making an Aug. 3 passage likely.
In special cases, however, the council can decide to take immediate action on a study agenda item.
Other Mississippi cities that have passed similar bans are Gautier, Horn Lake, Moss Point and Gautier. Natchez also is considering one.
Contact Emily Le Coz at (662) 678-1588 or emily.lecoz@djournal.com.
Tupelo's "leadership" doesn't seem to be good at anything other than looking STUPID and they have definitely mastered that!!
Something being abused? H*ll, let's ban it!
Will this madness ever end?
OK, let me join (hypothetically) this parade. Let's ban: spandex on fat gals, cell phones on every living mother lover on the continent, TV monitors in motor vehicles, that KFC "sandwich" of two fried chicken breasts with bacon and cheese between, loud radios playing tunes that feature something that sounds like "fock" every third measure, televangelists, telemarketers (Oh, wait, we did that already -- How did that work out?), tailgaters (Yeah, I know, you're picturing an 18-wheeler, but most of them are young, white, female, driving a Japanese brand, and have a cell-phone affixed to their ear), television lawyers, etc., etc.
Sheesh! This is America, folks! It ain't our civic duty to pass another law forbidding every single recreational activity so that Andy and Barney can sit in the office talking about girl friend problems instead of pounding their beats.
Besides, if it hadn't been for the DJ article, most NE Mississippians wouldn't have heard of the Threat-to-civilization-as-we-know-it-de-jour.
So, what if we ban newspapers and web sites?
Oh, that's already been tried, has it?
Oh, Lord! I need a beer. But, damn!, that's illegal where I live.
chief carlton dictates what he wants legal or illegal and the gutless council members meekly comply.
and people think they live in the "land of the free." what a freakin joke
Now I don't smoke dope, never have nor will I smoke this stuff. My concern is what authority does the city have to come up with its own list of items to ban ? Will Pam Cooking Spray be next ? It has been abused to the users ill being to the point of some deaths. Many other items are also used for highs.
This is a knee jerk reaction by folks that don't have the experience to deal with something. I remember when some controlled substances were being manufactured and altered to be a molecule off from the defined substance to escape being unlawful. Bottom line, the law was changed to include derivatives etc.
This a bad idea that will backfire. I don't expect many would challenge it, but there will be one somewhere that will cost Tupelo. The other side is what will Tupelo knee jerk and ban next? I do have a gut feeling Council, law enforcement etc could find themselves in individual capacity lawsuits as this appears to fall way outside their official capacity duties.