Local tactics to battle drugs have again spread across Arizona.

To fight the synthetic drugs known as spice and bath salts, officials in Maricopa and Pinal counties are following the lead of Yavapai County and targeting not the manufacturers or users but rather the retail stores where these still-legal substances are sold.

Rather than focus on the synthetic drugs themselves, Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk instead filed a temporary injunction in August which labeled the “novelty powders” a “public nuisance” and elicited help from the courts to prevent their sale from 12 retailers in the county.

Retailers who voluntarily sign an agreement acknowledging the danger of the synthetics and a promise to not sell the products were removed from the injunction and further court action. Polk used the sworn affidavits from more than 100 county residents to persuade Yavapai County Superior Court Judge Patricia A. Trebesch to impose the August injunction.

In October Pinal County Attorney James P. Walsh began asking retailers to voluntarily remove the powders and suggesting civil legal action against those who refuse or ignore the request.

Pinal County is a largely rural county between Phoenix and Tucson.

Maricopa County is targeting the synthetics in the meantime, however. Earlier in October, law enforcement conducted 17 raids, seizing 3,000 pounds of spice and similar products and 700 pounds of bath salts and related chemicals.

For the full story, see the Wednesday, Nov. 14, edition of The Camp Verde Journal or the Cottonwood Journal Extra.