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UTAH COUNTY -- Law enforcement on the Wasatch Front continues to crack down on the newly-illegal herb spice, even if the sellers say it's legal.
On Tuesday, Utah County officers simultaneously raided five smoke shops accused of selling spice, and they took KSL along.
Shortly after 10 a.m., dozens of officers with the Utah County Major Crimes Task Force staked out the smoke shops, then swooped in and shut down three shops in Provo, one in American Fork and one in Lehi.
"We look at it as if it was drugs, just like marijuana or heroin," said Sgt. Matt Siufanua with the Provo Police Department. "They're selling it as something that you actually smoke."
Police seized bags of spice from several stores, but did not take anyone into custody.
Scorpion, Bliss, Black Mamba. No matter the name, lawmakers banned the synthetic pot a year ago.
Provo police started investigating after a parent said his daughter had spent $900 on spice at local shops and had to go to rehab.
"The doctors there said that if they hadn't checked on her, she would have probably passed away. She was pretty bad off," Siufanua said.
Kenneth Pulley, the owner at one of the Provo shops in the bust, says his products are legal.
"None of our stores sell spice at all," Pulley said. "As far as I'm concerned, I was selling potpourri, you know what I mean? To make your sock drawer smell good. Put it in water and boil it, that kind of stuff."
He says his potpourri tests negative for the banned chemicals.
KSL first exposed spice in Utah two years ago, when it was a legal high. It sold under many brand names: Black Mamba, Bliss and Bombay Blue. All are basically the same thing: synthetic marijuana.
"We're finding user amounts of marijuana in a couple of them and we're finding large amounts of spice as well," Siufanua said. "For a while it went away, and for some reason its crept back and they've started to sell this stuff again."
The five businesses in Utah County are now all shut down for 72 hours, and the owner has to come before the city to get that business opened again.
Email: jboal@ksl.com
