Local Law Enforcement Agencies to Enforce New Senate Bill 370

Press Release from the Gilmer County Sheriff’s Office:
(Photos courtesy of the GCSO)

In the wake of the enactment into law of Senate Bill 370 on March 27, 2012, law enforcement agencies throughout the Appalachian Judicial Circuit (Gilmer, Fannin and Pickens Counties) fanned out to retail establishments across the three counties to enforce the new law outlawing all forms of synthetic marijuana.

Senate Bill 370 was effective upon the signature of Governor Deal and broadened the definition of chemicals used to manufacture synthetic marijuana thereby closing the loopholes used by companies and retailers to circumvent existing laws intended to prohibit synthetic marijuana.

Today, law enforcement officials from the Zell Miller Mountain Parkway Drug Task Force, the Appalachian Circuit District Attorney’s Office, Sheriff Nicholson of the Gilmer Co. Sheriff’s Office, Ellijay PD Chief Callahan, East Ellijay PD Chief Arp, and District Attorney Joe Hendricks visited retail establishments that were believed to have sold substances that would now be prohibited under the new law.
If suspected substances were found by law enforcement agencies, the stores were given an opportunity to voluntarily surrender the newly prohibited substances for destruction. They were then warned that any further discovery of such substances would result in their arrest and prosecution. Should owners decide to claim ownership or possession of the substances, then the substances would be sent to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for analysis. Should the substances be found by the crime lab to be prohibited by Senate Bill 370, then the case would be treated like any other felony drug possession case.

District Attorney Joe Hendricks said in regard to the action by local law enforcement agencies that

“The citizens of Fannin, Gilmer and Pickens Counties can be proud of the rapid response by their local law enforcement agencies to rid our communities of the scourge of synthetic marijuana. It is no longer permissible to peddle this poison to our children. I will see that any further possession and sale of these substances are prosecuted aggressively.”

Gilmer County Sheriff Stacy Nicholson stated he was

“pleased with the swift action of law enforcement and with the cooperation among law enforcement agencies to rid Gilmer County of synthetic marijuana.”