Schneiderman: Watertown smoke shop to pay $10K penalty for illegally selling designer drugs

WATERTOWN, N.Y. — A Watertown head shop will pay a $10,000 penalty as part of a settlement for “unlawfully” selling mislabeled and misbranded drugs.

Trip on the Wild Side II will also turn over more than $1,800 in revenue from the sales of those drugs, the office of New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a news release issued Thursday.

The settlement with owner/operator Kenneth Wayne Hamm specifies that Trip on the Wild Side II is further barred from selling misbranded and mislabeled kratom and Cannabidiol (CBD).

Schneiderman brought a contempt case against the business last August after discovering that Trip on the Wild Side II was unlawfully selling mislabeled and misbranded drugs in violation of a 2012 court order that “explicitly prohibited” such illegal sales.

“Misbranded and mislabeled drugs sold to the public are dangerous and illegal,” Schneiderman said. “My office will continue to hold accountable businesses seeking to profit at the expense of New Yorkers as we take on the drug crisis facing our communities.”

About the case

Schneiderman in 2012 started an initiative to remove street-drug alternatives and designer drugs from the shelves of stores across the state, according to his office.

Trip on the Wild Side II was one of the first stores against which Schneiderman took action, securing a permanent injunction against the business in 2012 prohibiting the sale of street-drug alternatives.

Targeted retailers were “illegally” selling the products because they “did not comply” with state labeling and branding laws, Schneiderman’s office said.

The product packaging “variably failed” to list usage directions, health warnings, dosage information, manufacturer information, or other information required by law.

The attorney general’s probe in 2017 revealed that Trip on the Wild Side II was in violation of that permanent injunction, and was selling “multiple forms” of misbranded and mislabeled CBD, including “Heady Harvest” CBD gummy bears, “Hemp Bomb” pills, CBD crumbles, CBD cartridges for vaping, and CBD Cherry Syrup.

Employees at the store also told an undercover investigator that they were preparing to sell kratom products, and gave him samples to try which were also mislabeled and misbranded.

As part of the settlement, the store was required to turn over all remaining inventory of its kratom and CBD products to Schneiderman’s office.

The mislabeled drugs have “psychoactive effects” similar to those of “more commonly known” street drugs, but they are typically packaged with “innocuous” labels and graphics to give the “misleading impression” that they are harmless.

Designer drugs have contributed to a “growing” public-health crisis in New York and across the nation.

In Jefferson County, calls to poison control for synthetic drugs are up 250 percent since 2011, according to a 2016 report issued by the New York State Senate.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com