Decision pending on Oceanside head shop

If New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman has his way, an Oceanside head shop will be held responsible for selling “deceptively mislabeled designer drugs to local consumers, according to a statement by his office issues this week.

On July 10, Schneiderman filed 12 lawsuits against 16 head shop locations, including East Coast Psychelelics, which has outlets in both Oceanside and Commack.

While final decisions have been made in many of the lawsuits and head shops throughout the state have been closed and fined, the case against the Oceanside shop is pending a decision in Nassau County supreme Court. Officials there say it is unclear as to when a final decision will be made.

Schneiderman said. “The [final decisions] prove that, by taking a creative approach in using the state’s existing labeling laws, we can get swift results to remove dangerous drugs from store shelves and hold sellers accountable for breaking the law. We will continue to use every tool in our arsenal to combat the growing and dangerous synthetic drug epidemic.”

The courts rulings come after Schneiderman’s office conducted an undercover investigation into head shops across New York. The investigation revealed that head shop retailers were selling designer drugs, including commonly known synthetics such as “bath salts” and “synthetic marijuana.” Undercover investigators statewide also discovered head shop employees were promoting these dangerous drugs and advising consumers how to prepare and ingest them.

The Decision and Order [rulings in the cases that have been settled] permanently ban the sale of any mislabeled, misbranded or unapproved drugs or intoxicants, and requires [shop owners] to produce an accounting of all commodities he sold or offered for sale between January 1, 2012, and August 1, 2012, including the name of the product, the manufacturer/distributor of the product, a description of the product, the retail price of the product, and the number of units sold. A hearing to establish the applicable penalties and costs is set for February 20.

Under New York State’s labeling laws, the packaging of consumer commodities must, at a minimum, identify the name and place of business of the manufacturer, packer, or distributor, the common product name, the net quantity of its contents, and the net quantity of servings, uses, or applications represented to be present with appropriate directions and warnings for customary use.