Spice, bath salts and other synthetic drugs all already banned from the state but drug makers have found a way around the ban.
Spice is now back in a convenience store near you and countless numbers of people are reporting getting sick, others even dying after using the drugs.
For Barry Craig, it started innocently enough.
“I had smoked marijuana in the past. I work at a company that doesn't allow you to and someone mentioned it saying it was synthetic and you couldn't trace it. I sampled it and thought wow it's pretty good,” Barry Craig said.
He started off using what he thought was synthetic marijuana every now and then and before he knew it, he was hooked.
“I had some experiences with this stuff that it pushed my mind to the brink where I thought I was going to snap and lose it.”
That’s something lawmakers have worked to try to prevent.
“A lot of these ingredients are not very healthy ingredients to start with,” said Representative Steve Davisson, R-District 73.
Davisson is a pharmacist by trade. He and other legislators just passed a bill banning synthetic drugs last year.
“Some of the manufacturers went in and changed the formulation slightly where it didn't fall under our statue,” said Davisson.
Now law makers are looking at another synthetic drug bill, one that will ban analogs, the different basic structures of these compounds.
“We're trying to close those loopholes and get those products off the streets.”
The bill would also give the state pharmacy board the emergency power to declare a compound a synthetic drug.
“We want a solution that will work and not have to be band-aided every time we turn around,” said Davisson.
As for Barry, he's finally off the synthetic drugs.
“I reached out and got medical help.”
But he says it's still a struggle.
“Every day, it's right there,” said Craig.
A struggle because these packets are still sold legally everyday in most gas stations near his home.
The bill will have to go to the Indiana House floor for a second reading. That will likely happen on Monday. It could be passed as early as next week. The Senate has already passed its version of the bill.
