by BRAD ROLLINS
The Kyle City Council voted on Tuesday to ban the sale, possession and use of salvia divinorum, sold under the product name “K-2” and referred to as synthetic marijuana.
Offenses will be a Class C misdemeanor punishable by a fine up to $2,000 under the ordinance, which must pass a second time at the next council meeting to become law. The council approved the ordinance on first reading 6-1 with Mayor Lucy Johnson dissenting.
“The safety of our children is my focus in this effort, the safety of young people. ... [It’s] an attempt to identify for the public this is not something that we want to have happen in our community. We hear about drug problems, but I think every city needs to make the effort to prohibit things that hurt our children or our adults,” said council member David Wilson, who has pushed the ordinance.
Johnson said she was concerned about being the only city on the corridor to outlaw the product, meaning that people who buy salvia divinorum legally in other cities could be cited or arrested passing through Kyle.
“In general, making things illegal does not necessarily mean that you are making them hard to get, only that you are making them for sale under illicit means and putting the sale of them in control of drug lords and bullies and thugs,” Johnson said, adding that she was more concerned about the detrimental effects of already illegal drugs.
She also said she has not seen proof that the salvia divinorum, some cousins of which she said grows naturally in parts of the Hill Country, is harmful to its users.
Johnson’s objections drew impassioned rebukes from her colleagues, who returned repeatedly to the welfare of children and teenagers.
“If we stop this now, we can start having a clean town,” council member Becky Selbera said.
