Shops Challenge Designer Drug Law
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Some record stores and retailers in Minnesota are suing to prevent a law on "designer drugs" from taking effect on Friday.
The law makes it illegal for people to use synthetic drugs that are similar in their chemical structure to illegal substances. But plaintiff's attorney Marc Kurzman said the law is so broad it would ban such things as legal hemp products.
"For example, hemp clothing, bird seeds, hemp oils for cooking are all made illegal by the statute," Kurzman said.
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He said the suit also questions claims that such products are harmful.
"It's definitely a lack of proof about the health claims from a scientific perspective," Kurzman said.
But sponsors of the law point to a mass overdose in Blaine earlier this year that killed a 19-year-old.
A Hennepin District judge will hold a hearing Wednesday morning on a request for a temporary restraining order.