Chicago bans sale of synthetic stimulants

Chicago’s city council is banning the sale of synthetic stimulants that mimic the effects of cocaine, Ecstasy and methamphetamines that are marketed as “bath salts.”

In a 46-0 vote Wednesday, the council approved an ordinance that also allows the city to suspend or revoke the licenses of business that sell the products.

Alderman Ed Burke says stimulants sold as bath salts are actually smoked, snorted, injected or ingested.

The ordinance follows Gov. Pat Quinn’s signing of a law last year that makes it a felony to possess certain bath salt ingredients.

An official with the Illinois attorney general’s office says a new law is being drafted to expand the law after makers of the bath salts came up with different formulas to sidestep the existing law.