The College Station City Council on Thursday voted to ban a pair of marijuana-like substances.
The 5-1 vote to ban K2 and salvia came after four people spoke against the proposal and one person spoke in favor of the measure. Councilman Jess Fields was the sole vote against the ban, which is expected to take effect in 10 days. A violation will result in a misdemeanor fine.
The Bryan City Council unanimously approved the first reading of a similar ban at a meeting earlier this week.
State Rep. Fred Brown, a Bryan Republican, has said he intends to introduce legislation in the upcoming session that would ban the substances across the state.
Fields said his vote against the ban was the hardest decision since being elected to the City Council because he opposes drugs as well as the restriction of rights.
"Nobody has the right to infringe on the rights of others," he said.
An outright ban of the drug will only push the substances underground, versus having the ability to control who can purchase it through regulations, Fields said.
Councilman Dennis Maloney said he thought the debate goes beyond personal rights and that he felt all drugs in America should be legalized because there's never been a culture that didn't have some sort of mind-altering drug.
"We always have mind-altering chemicals. That's part of the nature of man. The problem you have with drugs, unlike alcohol, is that you can't regulate the potency of the product," he said, explaining why he would vote in favor of the ban.
Maloney said the real problem is that the nation needs to face its drug problem, regulate the substances and control what goes into them.
"Until we can create that environment, all I can do is run around and put out fires," Maloney said.
Assistant Police Chief Scott McCollum said because of the synthetic nature of the substances, the ban includes "homologues or similar structural analogs" to cover any newly developed compounds. College Station will join other cities that have banned the substances, including Allen, Frisco, Jasper, Plano, Dallas and Tyler.
McCollum said in the past week he received a phone call about paramedics being called after a 21-year-old student and his girlfriend smoked K2 for the first time. He said both people reported increased anxiety, paranoia and the feeling of paralysis.
"He said that after two hits, or two puffs, of the pipe, he knew the effects were overwhelming him and he needed to call 911," he said. "He said he's never been so frightened in his life."
The City Council also approved a contract worth more than $345,000 for renovations and an equipment upgrade at the College Main Parking Garage.
David Gwin, director of economic and community development, said the garage's entry and exit equipment, at 10 years old, has reached the end of its service life. The constant need to repair the equipment is
consuming a considerable amount of staff time and resources, he said.
The upgrades will include new ticket dispensers, exit verifiers, gate control boxes, gate arms and uninterrupted power supply and surge suppresser components. The renovation also includes removing the existing pay stations and replacing them with two automatic pay stations, two new credit card-only pay kiosks and handheld ZipPark wireless handheld devices to allow visitors to remotely pay for the spaces, Gwin said.
The upgrades will also allow for the city to be able to pre-sell parking spaces, he said.
Mayor Pro Tem John Crompton asked for a future agenda item for a workshop meeting to outline the pros and cons of outsourcing the parking garage operations.
"We should not be in the parking business," he said.
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