The Platte County Sheriff, Prosecutor and Social Service Agencies hope a change in Missouri law will give teeth to fighting potentially deadly synthetic street drugs.
The recommendation comes after a charge was filed in connection with the death of a Northland teenager.
The manslaughter charge against 17-year-old Krista Meeks of Riverside contends she knew the synthetic LSD she allegedly sold a 15-year-old boy and a younger friend could kill and that other drugs like it had killed in the past.
The older boy died in October, his friend lived.
Sheriff Mark Owen said street-drug makers know if they change the formula by a molecule or two, it no longer is illegal and the law needs revision.
“The worst part of this lesson was, somebody died," the sheriff said. "And they died thinking they were taking something that was just going to give them a little buzz. But it affected their family, their friends, the young man he was with and his family, a lot of lives.”
Owen said state legislators are aware of the need to change definitions of synthetic drugs and he has conferred with them.
Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd said the lethal drugs were traced to a makeshift lab in Kansas City, Kan.