Sponsor Of Bath Salts Bill Looks Forward To Enforcement Of New Law

DENVER (CBS4) - The synthetic drugs known as bath salts are now officially banned in Colorado. Tobacco shops and even some convenience stores across the state sold the synthetic cathinones.

"It's online with methamphetamine or cocaine or a cross between the two," said Tom Raynes with the Colorado District Attorneys' Council.

One mother of a girl who took the drug reported that her daughter said if felt like spiders were crawling around inside of her.

On Thursday Gov. John Hickenlooper signed a bill making it a crime to sell or possess the drug in Colorado. The new law makes using the drug a misdemeanor and selling or making it a felony.

Bath salts have made headlines recently. In Miami, a man allegedly on the drug attacked a homeless man, and in Grand Junction a teenager died last month.

State Sen. Joyce Foster co-sponsored the bill and said she hopes the new law scares Colorado youth away from the drug. She says she pushed for use to be a misdemeanor and not a felony.

"Our prisons are pretty full, and why keep filling it up?" she said.

Raynes said he's concerned about the precedent of making a drug this dangerous a misdemeanor.

"I can appreciate the concern, but I'm also in the grand scheme of things worried about carving out exceptions to all our current drug structure system," he said.

Foster says she looks forward to seeing police and drug enforcement agents close down Colorado shops now if they offer bath salts.

At least 38 states have enacted bans on bath salts, and Congress is considering a ban on the chemicals used in the drug.