Program News

MHS Joins Campaign to Reduce Availability of Synthetic Drugs

Mental Health Systems North Inland Community Prevention Program (NICPP) has partnered with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and the City of San Marcos to raise awareness of an important public safety issue: The need to reduce the availability of dangerous synthetic drug products. The campaign seeks to raise awareness and enlist the support of businesses throughout San Marcos in this important effort.

A letter sent by the Sheriff’s Department to businesses in San Marcos stated, “We call upon our local business community to simply say ‘no’ to the sale of products used as synthetic marijuana and stimulants to demonstrate their community-minded support for public health and safety.” The products being referred to include a synthetic marijuana known as “spice” or “herbal incense,” which can cause psychosis in some users, and the designer drug called “bath salts,” which creates a high similar to cocaine.

Although these dangerous substances are known to pose health and safety risks to those who use them, many of them have yet to be made illegal. The partnering agencies are asking business owners to nonetheless simply refuse to stock them. Nationally, calls to poison control centers for problems resulting from the use of these products increased dramatically from 2009 to 2010. In fact, there were 77 times more such calls over that one-year period.