In Jacksonville Thursday, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said law enforcement agencies need to continue to develop tools to combat illicit synthetic drugs and warned against the dangers of devices such as electronic cigarettes.Bondi met with officers from Northeast Florida and other parts of the state at the headquarters of the North Florida High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.“We have many pending investigations and cases right in the Jacksonville area,” she said as the reason to meet with Northeast Florida officials.Synthetic drug use among youth from ninth to 12th grades is down over three years, including a decrease of 60 percent from 2012 to 2013, according to the state Department of Children and Families, but makers of the drugs meant to mimic marijuana or cocaine are changing tactics.The Attorney General’s Office said they are marketed as “incense,” “potpourri,” “K2,” “spice” and “bath salts” and sold under names like “Scooby Snax,” “½ Baked Hulk” and “Purple Flake.”The newest thing is makers are turning it into liquid and going after the e-cigarettes, Bondi said.“So we’ve been meeting with the e-cigarette companies to make sure they are tamper-proof,” she said.Devices designed to smoke the nicotine liquids are now available in the shape of writing pens, which a student could potentially hide at school and use to ingest the synthetics after disassembling and converting them, said Shannon MacGillis, a statewide prosecutor.Young people are particularly susceptible to cartoonish packaging that can soften the image of the synthetics that have been available in convenience stores, where the Department of Children and Families said 40 percent of the drugs are bought by high school students.“You’ve got to stop that curious first-time user,” MacGillis said.Thirty-five percent of the drugs are given to young people by friends, the study also found.Bondi related the case of a 14-year-old girl who sprinkled some on her potato chips at school because she was told it would help her study for finals.She suffered a violent seizure, but recovered.

Parents need to warn their children to be cautious, Bondi said.Orange Park passed an ordinance in December that banned the sale of electronic cigarettes to anyone younger than 18, ordered that the devices be kept behind the counter and also prohibited the smoking of them anywhere in public where cigarettes are banned.Orange Park Police Chief Gary Goble said copies of the law have been passed out to sellers of the devices and there have been no enforcement problems so far.Bondi said some counties have ordinances aimed at synthetic drugs, and one is being considered in Jacksonville.Makers of the drugs operated legally for a time, before laws were enacted to halt the manufacture.e cigarette saferThen, formulas were simply changed to one that was not regulated.e cigarette utilisation

Bondi has signed 131 emergency orders banning compounds used to make the drugs as the makers tried to stay ahead of the law.In one county store owners have agreed to put up window signs saying they do not sell the drugs, a move that Bondi said should be expanded.Stores and gas stations that sell the products give a false legitimacy to the drugs, she said.“It’s no longer where you are going on a dark street in the middle of the night, scared to death in a car,” she said.e cigarette advertising ban“You are able to walk in a convenience store.e cigarette athensAnd that’s what we are putting a stop to.”e cigarette analogWhen the cruise line Royal Caribbean sought to amend a 1997 consumer protection agreement with the Florida Attorney General’s office, it hired a lawyer familiar with the agency’s inner workings.e cigarette argent

Former Attorney General Bill McCollum called on the staff of his successor, Pam Bondi.Six months after the June 2013 meeting, Bondi’s office granted McCollum’s request.Royal Caribbean’s advertised rates would no longer have to include fees for services, like baggage handling and loading cargo.The fees, which can inflate a trip’s cost by more than $100, could be listed separately from the company’s advertised rates.On at least two other occasions, McCollum met with Bondi’s staff to discuss two more clients — NJOY, an e-cigarette company, and HealthFair, which sells health screenings from mobile clinics.McCollum isn’t just Bondi’s predecessor; he also leads the Republican State Leadership Committee, which has championed Bondi’s advancement.McCollum served as vice or acting chairman of the Washington-based group from June 2012 to January 2014, records show.During that period, it contributed $650,000 to Bondi’s re-election campaign, more than 10 percent of what she raised, and chipped in another $16,000 in gifts so she could attend conferences with other Republican attorneys general.

When asked what role he had in those expenditures, McCollum said the staff, not the board, decides how campaign contributions are made.He didn’t address the gifts.McCollum and Bondi’s deputy attorney general Patricia Conners said his access to her office has nothing to do with his connections.“I’m not getting any special favors,” McCollum said.“He isn’t treated any different,” said Conners.Tallahassee’s revolving door between public service and private gain has long been a worry for advocates of transparent government.In fact, the state’s Constitution bans cabinet members — including the attorney general — from contacting their former agencies on behalf of clients for the first two years out of office.McCollum, Florida’s top law enforcement official from 2007 to 2010, said he waited until 2013 to discuss clients with Bondi’s office.“I told my clients that I didn’t want anything to do with Florida during this period,” McCollum said.Yet once he did contact Bondi’s office in 2013, McCollum didn’t register himself or list his clients with the state, which is a requirement for anyone who lobbies the executive branch.

McCollum says that restriction — intended to ensure the public knows who is trying to influence public officials — doesn’t apply to him.“I was wearing my lawyer hat,” McCollum said.“I’m representing a client on a legal matter.I’m not trying to influence the attorney general.I’m trying to represent my client.That’s not lobbying.” But ethics and lobbying experts say being a lawyer, as many lobbyists are, doesn’t exempt McCollum.“We keep hearing this lawyer excuse, but it’s just not valid,” said Craig Holman, who lobbies for Public Citizen, a Washington nonprofit watchdog group.“Without a doubt, what he was doing was lobbying and he should have registered.” A batch of emails to and from Bondi’s office recently obtained by the Herald/Times have raised questions about the completeness of the state’s lobbying registries.The emails show that numerous corporate lobbyists, including several from a Washington law firm and two former attorneys general from other states, had lobbied Bondi’s office despite not registering.

On at least four occasions, the Dickstein Shapiro firm contacted Bondi's office on a particular matter.In each case, the AG's office declined to take action against the law firm's client.An ethics complaint filed last month alleges Dickstein Shapiro violated the state’s registration rule.If the Florida Commission on Ethics upholds the complaint, it can fine the firm up to $5,000 and ban it from lobbying in Florida for two years.But as the e-mails show, it wasn’t just out-of-town attorneys who weren’t registering.They showed that McCollum was meeting with Bondi’s staff to discuss his client.“I am looking forward to seeing you tomorrow when I bring Royal Caribbean [General Counsel] Brad Stein,” McCollum wrote to one of Bondi’s aides the day before the June 2013 meeting.Because he hadn’t registered and listed his clients, this is the only known public record showing McCollum was meeting with the executive branch to discuss Royal Caribbean.Now specializing in public policy and regulation at Dentons, an international law firm, McCollum said companies that need to resolve issues before attorneys general make up a fraction of his business.

He, like several other former attorneys general from other states, offers his first-hand knowledge of how states regulate corporate practices to help companies avoid legal pitfalls.“Are we being remunerated for our knowledge and know-how?” he said.“Yes, we are, and I don’t think that’s inappropriate.” McCollum said he has registered to lobby in several other states but maintains he is not required to do so in Florida.Carol W. Lewis, professor emerita at the University of Connecticut and co-author of the 1991 book The Ethics Challenge in Public Service, said she didn’t know why McCollum would be exempt from registering.“It seems to me that by Florida’s definition of lobbying, any attorney representing a client before an executive agency meets the very definition of lobbying,” Lewis said.The law defines lobbyists as those seeking to influence an agency’s decision on policy or procurement, or who are trying to curry goodwill with an official.McCollum said he was merely negotiating changes to an agreement involving Royal Caribbean, which he said is neither policy nor procurement.

For his two other clients, he said he was only providing information and wasn’t asking for anything.In addition, he said, he qualifies for one of the law’s exemptions: Lawyers who represent a client in a judicial or formal administrative proceeding don’t need to register.McCollum said that when he met with Bondi’s staff to discuss Royal Caribbean, it was an “extension” of the administrative proceeding that produced the initial 1997 agreement.“My meeting was all part of the same proceeding,” McCollum said.Holman said it’s a stretch to claim that McCollum’s meeting qualified as a “proceeding.” “Negotiating a contract from an executive branch agency is neither a judicial proceeding nor an administrative hearing,” Holman said.But Thomas Susman, a lobbyist for the American Bar Association in Washington, said McCollum’s actions were limited to negotiating contracts, and so he didn’t need to register.Clients should have the right to have their lawyers negotiate contracts without full public disclosure, Susman said, and a registry might undermine the attorney-client confidentiality privilege.