Daze, not confused, settles with state

The Daze smoke shop, one of 16 businesses targeted by the state attorney general, was found to be selling designer drugs, including bath salts and synthetic marijuana.

Christina Daly

Daze, a colorful smoke shop at 574 Sunrise Highway in Baldwin, agreed to stop selling synthetic marijuana, hallucinogens and a variety of other mislabeled products under signed orders from a Nassau County judge last week. New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman also said that the shop’s owners, Kim and Ryan Fulcher, agreed to pay $17,000 in fines they accrued when undercover investigators found they were selling banned substances.

Schneiderman’s office provided a list of illegal items it found for sale at Daze. These included Salvia (a psychoactive plant) and Nightlights Metaphysical Crystal Capsules. A statement from Schneiderman’s office clarified that despite their pithy and, to some, indecipherable, brand names, the substances he hoped to remove from head shop shelves were "designer drugs” like bath salts and synthetic marijuana. In conversation with the Herald last week, lawyers for Daze stressed that the shop was not found to be selling these two items.

Daze is not the only head shop targeted recently. On July 10, the attorney general filed 12 lawsuits against 16 such businesses across the state, from Baldwin to Utica and from Albany to Nanuet. Schneiderman stressed that the sweeping action was intended to stay one step ahead of drug designers who often push out new narcotics faster than laws can be drafted to address them.

“Although Federal and State authorities have attempted to outlaw certain chemicals and their analogs and to remove these items from commerce,” a release from the attorney general’s office read, “their efforts continue to fall short, as the chemists and producers providing the products for head shops simply alter formulas and stay ahead of the legislation.”

“The proliferation of synthetic drug abuse is an emerging crisis on Long Island and across the state,” Schneiderman said last week. “Our creative approach to addressing this epidemic has resulted in quick action from the courts and the swift removal of these dangerous illegal drugs from store shelves.”