WATERTOWN — A judge has signed a consent order and judgment demanding mislabeled or unlabeled products, including synthetic drugs commonly referred to as "designer drugs," be permanently removed from the store shelves of Trip On The Wild Side II, 671 Mill Street, Watertown.
In addition to the removal of these harmful products, owner Kenneth Wayne Hamm must also pay $25,000 in penalties and $2,000 in costs.
As part of Attorney General Schneiderman’s undercover investigation, agents went into the Trip On The Wild Side II store and purchased items, such as Cali Crunch, Zaney Bar, Lucky Kratom, Adarol Energy, and nitrous oxide canisters.
"The proliferation of designer drugs has become a crisis in Jefferson County, New York State and across the country. The judge's order proves that, by taking a creative approach in using the state's existing labeling laws, we can get swift results to remove dangerous synthetic drugs from store shelves and hold sellers accountable for breaking the law," said Attorney General Schneiderman. "We will continue to use every tool in our arsenal to combat the growing and dangerous synthetic drug epidemic."
Under New York State's labeling law, the packaging of consumer commodities must, at a minimum, identify the name and place of business of the manufacturer, packer, or distributor, the common product name, the net quantity of contents, and the net quantity of servings, uses or applications represented to be present with appropriate directions and warnings for customary use.
On July 10, the Attorney General filed 12 lawsuits against 16 head shop locations, including Trip on the Wild Side II. Within 36 hours of filing the lawsuits, the Attorney General's office obtained Temporary Restraining Orders from all 12 judges effectively removing the mislabeled products from the shelves. Monday's order permanently bans the retailer from selling synthetic drugs.
Additionally, on August 1, the Attorney General filed a new lawsuit against Tebb's Head Shops for the sale of bath salts and synthetic drugs in violation of the state's labeling laws. Attorney General Schneiderman sued John Tebbetts, III of Rome, NY, who owns and operates a chain of eight head shops located throughout Central and Northern New York, for violating the state's labeling laws by selling designer drugs.
Although Federal and State authorities have attempted to outlaw certain chemicals and their analogs and to remove these items from commerce, their efforts continue to fall short as the chemists and producers providing the products for head shops simply alter formulas and stay ahead of the legislation.
