Cities across the state are grappling with what to do about synthetic drugs.  Staffers at public shelters in Duluth have caught more than 100 people smoking, snorting, or injecting synthetics in the past year even though city council members have battled with a local head shop to halt sales.

On Friday, Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson and a special Committee on Controlled Substances and Synthetic Drugs will meet to develop some recommendations.

City and state leaders have fought again and again to stop these drugs that ER nurses and physicians say are turning people into zombies.  The trouble is, every time they outlaw a substance, the substance changes and becomes legal again.

Swanson and House Speaker Paul Thissen, who appointed the committee, are have spearheaded the efforts to help communities stop the legal sales of synthetics.  Duluth state representative Erik Simonson, who calls synthetic drugs a “real threat,” is heading up the committee.

Lawmakers are looking for nurses and community members who can show the magnitude of the problem of synthetic drugs on Minnesota’s hospitals and cities.  Thissen hopes the public will be able to demonstrate the effects of abuse of prescription drugs as well.  A strong turnout will urge the rest of the legislature to enact a statewide solution next year.

The meeting will begin at 2 p.m. June 7 at the Sheraton Hotel.  More meetings are scheduled for in Brainerd and on the Iron Range, and the committee is expected to issue report with recommendations next February.