By David A. Farrell, Item Staff Writer
The Picayune Item
POPLARVILLE —
Supervisors on Monday adopted a resolution banning the sale and possession of what is termed “synthetic cannabinoids,” which covers substances that users call mojo, Triple XXX, Spice, among other names, and currently is being sold and used in Pearl River County as a “synthetic marijuana.”
The substance, which is labeled on the packages as “herbal incense”, is sprayed with synthetic-produced THC, which is the chemical in marijuana that produces the high.
Supervisors voted 5-0 to adopt the resolution drawn up by board attorney Joe Montgomery. Supervisor Hudson Holliday moved that the resolution be adopted. Montgomery drew up the resolution after the board directed him to do so on June 21.
The law takes effect immediately, and Chief Deputy Sheriff Shane Tucker said that after officers are briefed on exactly what the law says, they will begin informing store owners who are selling the products to remove them from their shelves and get rid of it or face charges.
Sheriff David Allison said, after a June 21 supervisors’ meeting when supervisors directed Montgomery to draw up a law, that he would begin enforcing the ban immediately if and when the law took effect.
Allison was out of town on Monday, in Oxford attending a school, but Tucker said that beginning Tuesday that the sheriff’s deputies will begin informing those who sale the products, termed Spice, Mojo, Triple XXX and other names, of the new law and that they must get rid of it.
“The first thing we have to do is read it (the new law),” said Tucker, “and whatever teeth it gives us to combat the mojo problem, that is what we will do.”
He said sheriff’s department officials will brief the Poplarville and Picayune officers on the law. Allison said at the June 21 meeting that any law that would be adopted would be enforced not only in the county but in the county’s two municipalities. Sheriff’s deputies have authority to make arrests inside the city limits of the county’s two municipalities.
At the June 21 meeting, supervisors said they wanted in the law a fine of $2,500 and 30 days in jail for the first offense.
“The fair thing for us to do is let vendors know that it is now illegal to sale and possess it. We will go by and see the vendors and let them know that it is now illegal to sale and possess that product, and let them know unless they discontinue the sale and get rid of it, they will be charged,” Tucker said.
A police investigator on June 21 told supervisors earlier that some quick stops and tobacco shops were selling mojo for $60 for 3 grams. In addition, the investigator, Cpt. Rossie Creel, a Poplarville police officer who has studied and researched the products, said that one tobacco shop owner told him he would not discontinue selling it because he was making too much money off it and it was not illegal to sell it.
Pearl River County on Monday became the third governing body on the Gulf Coast to outlaw the substances, which are called “herbal incense” on the package and are labeled “not for human consumption.” However, purchasers of the product roll it into reefers and stuff it into their pipes to smoke it.
Jackson County and the city of Ocean Springs approved ordinances outlawing sale of the products, which are also called synthetic marijuana. The products are sprayed with THC, which is the chemical in naturally grown marijuana producing the high. The spray is a synthetic reproduction of the chemical in marijuana.
Montgomery said Pearl River County’s ordinance was modeled after Ocean Springs’ ordinance.
Montgomery explained that he had used Ocean Springs’ ordinance as a model, that Marion County had asked for an Attorney General’s opinion on whether or not county boards of supervisors had the authority to pass the law and, that as far as he could tell, the state legislature had not taken any action on the issue, although they might.
Holliday then said, “This ordinance says it takes effect immediately, and in the absence of the state not doing anything, I think we have a responsibility of doing something. I don’t see why we sit around here and wait on them. I make a motion that we sign this resolution, and get the ball rolling.”
Supervisor Sandy Kane Smith seconded Holliday’s motion. It passed unanimously.
Montgomery said that technically what has transpired is that the board has declared an emergency and the ordinance does take effect immediately, but Montgomery said he still has to publish the ordinance in the newspaper as a public notice.
