Head Shops Seized and Prosecuted by DEA
(PRWEB) July 17, 2013 -- Project Synergy, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) latest effort at taking down designer drug organizations, has led to “more than 227 arrests… and 416 search warrants served in 35 states, 49 cities and five countries,” according to a DEA press release. The Koffel Law Firm, a criminal defense law firm in Ohio, believes that legitimate head shop businesses are being wrongfully targeted in these DEA raids.
“Head shops and the businesses that supply them may be taboo to a large part of our population, but they are not illegal. Nor are the items they sell openly to the public. The DEA and local law enforcement agencies are pursuing these lawful businesses under the protection of search warrants. Search warrants have to be based upon reliable information that the property to be searched contains illegal items,” said Lead Attorney Brad Koffel.
Head shops are known for selling drug-related paraphernalia and drug culture items such as t-shirts and herbal supplements. The term “head shop” was coined in the 1960s, a time when avid drug users were called “heads.” The Koffel Law Firm’s concern is that Project Synergy is resulting in attacks on synthetic drugs and head shops that are not expressly illegal per Ohio law. Attorney Brad Koffel is currently representing an individual who ran a head shop business.
“My client’s business, much like the other recent head shops in Ohio and around the US, is being raided yet no illegal items are being found. They merely refer to this stuff as “synthetic drugs”. This is the issue: what are synthetic drugs? We are discovering what the local authorities believe are illegal are not,” said Koffel.
The DEA stated in their June 26, 2013 release that they are targeting “the upper echelon of dangerous designer synthetic drug trafficking organizations that have operated without regard for the law or public safety.” Koffel believes that the substances which the DEA is seizing from Ohio headshops does not meet the standard of synthetic dangerous drugs.
Koffel added, “I am not a pro-drug nut job nor am I on the dime of the head shop groups. This is my first contact with this type of police search in Ohio. I am bothered by the press release first then raid for publicity form of policing.”
Project Synergy began in December 2012. It was a coordinated effort by the DEA’s Special Operations Division, the Office of Diversion Control, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and others. The outcome of these cases will likely be paramount in synthetic drug cases throughout Ohio.
Brad Koffel, The Koffel Law Firm, http://www.columbuscriminaldefensefirm.com, (614) 884-1100, [email protected]
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