SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- In the year since Missouri banned K2, a new round of synthetic drugs has shown up in stores across the Ozarks. Lawmakers say the first ban was too specific, and now a bill targeting "bath salts" and similar drugs is waiting for the governor's signature.
"I had heard about K2, and I thought they had banned it. I had thought nothing else about it until it happened to me," said Charlie Fagan.
Fagan's tragedy happened last Thursday, at the hands of one of the new synthetic drugs that have sprung up after last year's ban of K2. Fagan's son, Seth, smoked a drug called "Dead Man Walking," which is sold as incense and had a reaction resulting in Seth biting off a third of his own tongue.
"I don't want that to happen to someone else's child," said Fagan.
In the week since that happened, a bill banning more synthetic drugs hit the fast track at the Missouri Capitol. The House gave final approval to a bill that would ban bath salts, incense and other synthetic drugs.
Fagan calls it a victory but, after the governor's signature, it likely won't be law until late August.
"I'm not going to rest at ease knowing that, right now as we speak, it could still be being sold right downtown, right across the streets from our school to another child, your grandchild, your children," said Fagan.
That includes the Reeds Spring School District, where his son is in school.
