Abbeville City Council looks to strengthen laws against paraphernalia, synthetic drugs

The Abbeville City Council started its year Tuesday by taking a step to strengthen its stance on the sale of drug paraphernalia and synthetic drugs in the city.
The council discussed the issue during its final meeting of 2014. Councilman-at-Large Francis Plaisance requested then that the council adopt an ordinance banning the sale of drug paraphernalia.
The state adopted a drug paraphernalia statue in 2006. City Attorney Ike Funderburk told the council Tuesday that he will prepare an ordinance that will adopt the state statue for the city.
“I will also prepare a separate ordinance dealing with synthetic drugs,” Funderburk said. “I will model it after what Lafayette has recently done.”
Plaisance said the state statue is important for this process.
“It is very specific about drug paraphernalia,” Plaisance said.
A portion of the state law, 40:1021, reads: All equipment, products, and materials of any kind which are used, intended for use, or designed for use in planting, propagating, cultivating, growing, harvesting, manufacturing, compounding, converting, producing, processing, preparing, testing, analyzing, packaging, repackaging, storing, containing, concealing, injecting, ingesting, inhaling, or otherwise introducing into the human body a controlled substance.
Abbeville Police Chief Tony Hardy said arrests can certainly be made now, but there is an issue with how retail shops market an item.
“Their attorneys call us and tell us,” Hardy explained, “you call it (drug paraphernalia), but we sell it as something else.”
Funderburk agreed.
“Some of this stuff that is classified as drug paraphernalia can also be used for legitimate purposes,” Funderburk said.
Funderburk, who prosecutes the cases in city court, and Hardy said they will work closely on cases relating to this
matter.
In the meantime, Plaisance said he simply wants to see anything relating to drug problems in the city gone.
“Kids are dying all over the country from this stuff,” Plaisance said. “I don’t want our kids dying in our city. If we can do anything at all, anything, to deter the use of drugs in any way shape or form, that’s what I want us to try to do.”
Nicole Johnson, the manager of the Live Oak Manor apartment complex on Martin Luther King Drive in Abbeville, attended Tuesday’s meeting. She said the need to do something is urgent.
“There are stores near us that are selling this stuff,” Johnson said. “It is not on the shelf anymore, but they are selling it. That’s a problem that I am having. I have cleaned up Live Oak, but they are getting this stuff from these stores and smoking it outside.”
Johnson said one resident suffered negative effects from smoking synthetic marijuana.
“He decided he wanted to fly,” Johnson said. “He landed on his face. We had to call the police and an ambulance. His face was all busted up.
“This stuff is here, they are doing it and it is a problem.”