State Senator Raoul fights marketing of illicit drug products to youth

Legislation bans flavored “blunt wraps,” smaller heroin amounts

 

SPRINGFIELD, IL – Illinois State Senator Kwame Raoul (D-13^th) led a successful effort in the Senate to ban two significant dangers to youth that have emerged statewide in the past few years: small amounts of heroin that currently escape the law’s harshest penalties but can still cause overdoses, and flavored “blunt wraps” – wrapping papers commonly used to smoke illicit drugs and flavored in ways attractive to young people.

“The wide availability of illegal drugs to our children and youth is a scourge afflicting communities throughout the state of Illinois,” Raoul said. “It’s vital that our laws keep pace with the many forms of delivery and marketing of drugs to our children.”

Blunt wraps, which were previously categorized by the U.S. Customs Service as drug paraphernalia but were subsequently relabeled as cigar wrappers, allow the easy rolling of drugs like marijuana, crack cocaine, and PCP to create larger joints with flavors like cotton candy, grape, and peanut butter. Tobacco companies began selling the wrappers relatively recently – after it became a common practice for young people to split open cigars and refill them with illicit drugs. The ban applies only to blunt wraps with flavors clearly aimed at the youth market; tobacco-flavored and menthol-flavored wraps are exempt.

The measure also increases penalties for the manufacture or distribution of small amounts of heroin. Currently a person convicted of selling or manufacturing heroin is subject to mandatory imprisonment only if the amount is five or more grams; this legislation would lower the threshold to three grams. Sen. Raoul heard from cities and towns that had noticed an increase in the packaging of heroin in small quantities still potent enough to cause an overdose, especially in a child or teenager.

“We need to take a proactive stance in the struggle against drugs in our neighborhoods; since I first introduced legislation to ban blunt wraps, these items have seeped out of larger cities and have spread throughout the state,” Raoul said. “I’m pleased that we are giving law enforcement two additional tools to combat drug use, particularly among young people.”

House Bill 3801 now requires the approval of the House before going to the governor’s desk.