Synthetic drug law vague, fluid

I am the owner and operator of Egor’s Tobacco and Gift Shoppe in Carpentersville. There was a news story in your paper May 30 regarding action taken at my store on May 29, regarding synthetic drugs seized. Consequently, I am hearing all kinds of chatter about this action. There are people spreading inaccurate “facts” about what was in the store and so on. Please allow me to clarify.

First of all I want to point out that all of these products were bought from legitimate vendors who have been shipping these products into this state without penalty for years. Their products were accompanied by certified lab reports stating that they contained no chemicals containing synthetic cannabinoids which are banned under Illinois law; therefore, presumably legal to sell. I know these products may be controversial. but I believed the companies and their laboratories were being honest or I would not have had these products.

As your story states, state legislators have taken up a new bill that would make it illegal to sell these products.

The Illinois law regarding these products has been rewritten a few times in the past two years as I understand it, and according to a news release from Lisa Madigan’s office the new House Bill 5233 would crack down on the sale of these products. It states that the bill is awaiting final legislative action. In other words, the current law is obviously not clear and the new law is not signed yet.

I was told by the state and local authorities that they wanted all of these products out of the local stores and that they wanted me to voluntarily give up the small amount of inventory in my store and agree to stop selling these products, which I did agree to. I wish the state or any other appropriate authority would have sent out an official notice, as the law evolved, clarifying that the newly reformulated products were not legal and that they were being illegally marketed to stores such as mine — because I would have complied.

Debbie Colbert

Elgin