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June 30, 2012

Concerns about ‘excited delirium’ voiced

From synthetic marijuana use

Mark Millican markmillican@daltoncitizen.com

When Dalton Police officers approached a couple who were selling products along the roadway a few months ago, the male became combative when the couple learned there was a fugitive warrant out on the man from another state.

A struggle took place as the man was being arrested and he was “Tased,” Chief Jason Parker told the members of the Public Safety Commission this week. At the Whitfield County jail, the man fought with deputies inside a holding cell and had to be Tased again.

A couple of days later he had calmed down, Parker said.

“He talked (with investigators) about using what he called ‘Incense’ and ‘Spice’ a day or two before (the arrest),” Parker detailed, saying the man may have been suffering from what some in the medical community are calling “excited delirium.”

After the meeting, Parker elaborated on his comments to the commission.

“It’s a condition where an individual is very highly agitated — and (this can be) experienced by law enforcement — a prolonged struggle takes place, and other ingredients may be present like cocaine or methamphetamine,” he said. “And now, we believe, this synthetic marijuana and bath salts.”

Parker said the “concern” in law enforcement circles is that synthetic marijuana can be as great a contributor to excited delirium as meth and cocaine.

“When people get into that state they have trouble reasoning, they have trouble thinking clearly and tend not to cooperate and not to react to or submit to the use of force,” he said. “So without proper training and so forth officers may escalate force without trying different methods.”

Parker told the commission the General Assembly has studied anew the synthetic marijuana and bath salts phenomenon, and came up with a solution.

“Senate Bill 370 is posted every year to update drug laws, so this year the bill was known as Chase’s Law (named after Chase Burnett, 16, of Peachtree City, who drowned in his family’s hot tub after allegedly smoking synthetic marijuana),” he said. “What we’ve learned through the Georgia (Police) Chiefs Association and other contacts is that those formulas may have been changed. So the governor sent a letter to the Georgia Board of Pharmacy asking them to consider adopting an emergency rule classifying newly discovered compounds as a schedule 1 substance — which just means they’re controlled. Then the board decided to do that ... which allows for the seizure of these new synthetic drugs.”

Parker said there doesn’t appear to be a problem with synthetic marijuana and bath salts in Dalton since officers visited stores selling the substance after the emergency rule was adopted.

“We went around to the places that had that material and said, ‘Look, this material is now illegal. We’re not going to charge you with it since you couldn’t have known about the law prior to now, but under the Georgia Controlled Substances Act we’re going to take possession of this and you can appeal that if you want to.’ We will destroy those items if there’s no appeal,” he said.

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