Dallas Police are asking the city council for more power to regulate smoke shop businesses. Police say a new law would be a powerful tool to help them stop the spread of K2.
"The arrests are downtown mostly, but heads shops and smoke shops, they're everywhere in our city," Dallas Police Chief David Brown said.
Many city council members are on board with the plan.
Dallas police said Monday that K2 overdoses continue to be a problem in downtown Dallas.
There have been more than 200 calls to 911 this year near downtown for suspected K2 overdoses.
It costs $1,500 each time an ambulance has to take a person to the hospital, or $800 if there's no transport.
There were 200 K2 related emergency calls by the end of January, and while police and Dallas Fire-Rescue commanders say it's still an issue, the number of emergency calls has gone done this month.
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DFR did not provide updated numbers for the month of February.
Dallas Police Deputy Chief Vernon Hale said the downtown "Quality of Life" campaign to arrest aggressive panhandlers is making an impact, since many of the people arrested may sell the drug to transient and homeless people.
Hale also acknowledged some of the people who were arrested would have likely been using the drug and at-risk for overdosing, which also helps explain the drop in K2 calls.
Dallas police have made eight felony arrests so far this year for synthetic-marijuana distribution.
Police say some smoke shops import kilograms of chemicals from China, then break down them down into a fine powder and manufacture the drug here.
"It's just too easy and too cheap, so I'm sure it's being made in many places that I don't even know about yet," Hale said, noting that a synthetic marijuana "hit" may cost as little as $3.
A new law, city attorneys say, would likely be modeled after the city's eight-year-old convenience store ordinance.
A drug paraphernalia store law, therefore, would likely force smoke shops to register with the city, mandate high-definition surveillance cameras and allow for mandatory police inspections "at reasonable times upon request."
Police also say mandatory closing times would help stop the criminal sale of K2.
"I think having the ability to inspect these locations is very important," Hale said.
"You used to see this stuff creatively packaged and displayed. It was right on the shelves, or right by the registers," he added. "But these days you're not going to see it on display. You're going to need the secret code name for that day, and that changes constantly. They're going to have it hidden. So it's a difficult investigation."
As police made their case before the City Council Public Safety Committee, the 710 Vapors smoke shop on Greenville Avenue was packed, as usual, with customers.
"There's no reason they should be able to come into our shop and do that," said manager Micah Jue. "If police are already investigating and have an idea which neighborhoods specifically are still dealing this stuff, then keep doing the job at hand and get the work done that way."
710 Vapors is a three-year-old business that never sold K2 and makes most of its money dealing with vaping products, Jue said.
They say mandatory registration and police inspections would hurt the bottom line and would create an unfair stigma of all paraphernalia shops.
"I do find it really odd that the city of Dallas would try to lump a shop like ourselves in with all these other shops that are just trying to make a buck selling God-knows-what," Jue said.
Police say K2 is not just a downtown problem anymore, and many city council members agreed.
It's used by suburban teenagers looking for a cheap high, they said, and even by business professionals and construction workers looking to avoid a failed marijuana drug test.
Officers say the city's convenience store ordinance is a major reason for the city's years-long drop in violent crime, since police can rely on an updated list of registered stores and in-store surveillance video that may capture criminals on camera.
City attorneys are also looking into "smoke-shop free" zones near schools and churches – the minimum distance is still up for debate.
Workers at 710 Vapors are afraid it's an over-reach that could put many legitimate stores out of business.
"I feel the ordinance they want to push through is way too wide," Jue said.
At this point the city attorneys are drafting the proposed ordinance, then it'll have to be debated and approved.
Police say they don't even know how many smoke shops there are in the city because there's no accurate list.
