[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 10016-10017]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               SALTS ACT

  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Madam President, I come to the floor today to speak 
about a major problem across my State--the Presiding Officer has seen 
it in Iowa--and across the country, and that is the scourge of 
synthetic drugs.
  We have all seen reports of people who have hurt themselves or others 
or who have died under the influence of dangerous drugs. This issue hit 
home in my State after Trevor Robinson, a 19-year-old from Blaine, MN, 
died after overdosing on a drug called 2C-E in 2010. I introduced a 
bill to outlaw 2C-E and other similar substances, and with the help of 
Senator Grassley, as well as Senator Schumer, we were able to get that 
bill signed into law. But there is so much more that needs to be done, 
as we have learned since we passed that bill.
  Here is one recent example. Law enforcement officials in Florida and 
throughout the country are dealing with a synthetic drug called Flakka. 
This extremely dangerous drug has been linked to hallucinations and 
other bizarre behavior. We are always trying to stay one step ahead of 
these new and dangerous compounds because the way the law works now, we 
have to keep adding new compounds. So what happens is that the crooks 
who are manufacturing these drugs--the drug leaders, the people who are 
running these drug rings--are actually just changing the compounds up 
so they are different, and they are staying one step ahead of the law 
in that way.
  Before I was elected to the Senate, I spent 8 years serving as chief 
prosecutor in Minnesota's largest county. Drug cases made up about one-
third of our caseload, and I had an opportunity to see firsthand the 
devastating impacts of drug addiction.
  Recent statistics have shown that almost half of all high school 
students have used addictive substances, and synthetic drugs are a 
growing problem in Minnesota and across the country. A recent survey of 
15,000 Minnesota high school students found that 26 percent have used 
illegal drugs, and of that group, 12 percent have used synthetic drugs.
  The problem with synthetic drugs, which we have realized as I have 
done events with law enforcement in places such as Fargo and in places 
such as the suburbs of Minneapolis, is that many times people who buy 
these synthetic drugs get much worse drugs than the actual substance. 
They get much harder-core drugs, much more difficult drugs--drugs that 
cause them to hallucinate and drugs that cause them to either kill 
themselves or to hurt others. That is why I have reintroduced 
bipartisan legislation with Senators Graham, Feinstein, and Grassley 
that would make it easier to prosecute the sale and distribution of new 
synthetic drugs that are analogues--or substantially similar to current 
illegal drugs.
  What we are looking at is the fact that the people who sell these 
drugs or manufacture them just keep changing a compound here or there 
so they can skirt the law. What we are trying to do with this bill is 
to make it easier to prosecute the new drugs that are substantially 
similar. The Supreme Court actually very recently issued a decision in 
McFadden focused on the mens rea standard in analogue drug cases.
  My bill, the Synthetic Abuse and Labeling of Toxic Substances or 
SALTS

[[Page 10017]]

Act is focused instead on the underlying factors for what makes 
something an analogue drug. Why do we need this new legislation? 
Because expert chemists are able to slightly alter the chemical makeup 
of synthetic drugs so they are no longer on the list of banned 
substances. To address this, current law provides the DEA with the 
mechanism to prosecute the sale and distribution of drugs that are 
analogues--analogues--that are substantially similar to controlled 
substances. However, the law specifically says that an analogue drug 
does not include any substance ``not intended for human consumption.'' 
This can be a big problem because synthetic drugs often are explicitly 
marked as ``not intended for human consumption.'' But manufacturers, 
distributors, sellers, and abusers of these substances all know exactly 
what to do with them--ingest them or snort them to get a dangerous and 
many times unpredictable high.
  The SALTS Act amends the Controlled Substances Act to allow 
consideration of a number of factors when determining whether a 
controlled substance analogue was intended for human consumption, 
including looking at the marketing, advertising, and labeling of a 
substance and its known use. That is a much more honest way to look at 
what is actual consumption. You don't just look at the fact that there 
is a label on it that says it because that is what the drug dealers do 
to protect themselves. Instead what you do is you look at what is 
actually going on here. You look at the marketing, advertising, and the 
labeling of a substance and its known use.
  The bill also says the existence of some pieces of evidence that a 
substance was not marketed, advertised or labeled for human consumption 
should not stop prosecutors from being able to establish, based on all 
the evidence--the totality of the evidence--that the substance was, in 
fact, intended for human consumption.
  New synthetic drugs constantly come onto the market. We need to give 
our law enforcement agencies the tools they need to combat them. This 
legislation will make it easier for prosecutors to demonstrate that a 
given synthetic drug is, in fact, intended for human consumption. We 
know that it is going on. We know that is why these guys are selling it 
over the Internet. They are trying to get around the law. They have 
actually been quite successful, causing many deaths, many people hurt, 
many people addicted.
  So all this does is get to the facts. Is this really being used for 
human consumption or not? This legislation is going to make it easier 
for prosecutors to demonstrate with the totality of circumstances and 
not just the label that says it is not intended for human consumption--
but looking at how it is sold, what it is used for, to make it easier 
to meet that standard. That is the only way we are going to go after 
these guys who are constantly changing the compounds to get around the 
law.
  I would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the 
efforts, since we are talking about synthetic drugs, of the outgoing 
Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, my fellow 
Minnesotan, Michelle Leonhart. Administrator Leonhart has had a long 
career in law enforcement, serving with the DEA since 1980 and as 
Administrator since 2010. She started her career back in Minnesota and 
has served in the DEA since, for a very long time, over 30 years.
  I would especially like to thank the Administrator for her work on 
the prescription drug take-back issue. During her tenure, the DEA has 
coordinated a series of national events that have collected over 2,400 
tons of unused prescription drugs--2,400 tons. That is, by the way, why 
we worked with the Administrator--Senator Cornyn and I--to develop 
legislation which passed to make it easier for take-out programs, to do 
them more routinely, but meanwhile 2,400 tons were collected. These 
events are critical in preventing drug abuse and overdoses and getting 
old medicines out of the cabinet where people who are not prescribed 
them sometimes take them. I want to thank Administrator Leonhart for 
her law enforcement career.
  Thank you, Madam President.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CARPER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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