The House has voted unanimously to pass HB 119, banning a synthetic drug that has been marketed as "bath salts" or plant food, and HB 139, a measure to ban the drug known as "spice," a synthetic version of marijuana that already had been banned by administrative rule of the state pharmacy board. Rep. Rich Wills, R-Glenns Ferry, sponsor of HB 119, told the House, "We're not referring to the bath salts that you put into your bathtub for normal use." The designer drug, he said, is "known as fake cocaine or fake methamphetamine." Rep. Lynn Luker, R-Boise, sponsor of HB 139, said, "This is the spice bill - it obviously is not the kind of spice that your mom cooked your birthday cake with." He compared it to the earlier bill, and said, "Same problem - you've got the labs out there trying to find some new way to dispense drugs to our kids and public in a way that is detrimental." Both bills passed on 69-0 votes, and now move to the Senate side for consideration.

Meanwhile, legislation introduced earlier to ban "blunt wraps," a type of roll-your-own cigar wrapper, has stalled, and Senate Judiciary Chairman Denton Darrington, R-Declo, said, "That bill is totally dead in my drawer, withdrawn by the sponsor." That measure, too, had been portrayed by its sponsor, the Cigar Association of America, as targeting a new way that drug dealers are reaching out to youngsters with a legal product; it sought to ban the roll-your-own cigar wraps, which are made of tobacco and sometimes come with flavorings, as drug paraphernalia. But it turned out that competing tobacco companies strongly oppose the move, and cigar wraps made of tobacco leaf already are classified and taxed as tobacco by U.S. Customs and other agencies.

When the lobbyist for the cigar company, Russ Westerberg, introduced the measure, he said he knew of no legal purpose for the wraps - that people use them to roll marijuana joints, and users like the tobacco and flavoring in the wraps because it disguises the aroma of the drug - but that if there are legitimate uses for the wraps, others might bring those forward. Other industry groups said they're used  to roll cigars, and that's legal. Darrington said of the bill, "I've got it in a safe place. I was willing to go with it, but it wasn't wise."