Utah Legislature: Committee approves reclassification of Soma

SALT LAKE CITY — The muscle relaxer under the brand name Soma would become a Class IV controlled substance under a bill that was approved in a Utah House committee Wednesday.

Despite assertions by a representative of Utah defense attorneys that classifying the commonly used medication as a controlled substance would only increase the inmate count at local jails and prisons, HB30 was unanimously approved by the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee.

Testimony from private citizens saying they had lost family members who overdosed on the drug carisoprodol ultimately swayed committee members to approve the bill sponsored by Rep. Trisha Beck, D-Sandy.

Jeff Jensen was among three citizens who testified to the addictive nature of Soma and that reclassifying the medication would put another barrier against a growing epidemic of prescription drug abuse in Utah and nationwide.

The spouse of a woman who he said was able to get off the drug said it became part of a 25th wedding anniversary cruise when his wife's first urge when they reached a foreign port was to find a pharmacy where she could buy as many Soma pills as they could afford.

"My story has a happy ending, because she has been able to get off the drug," he said. "Had it been listed, I would have had another tool as a family member to support her."

Sean Hullinger, spokesman for the Utah Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said the bill has as much capacity to destroy lives as the drug itself, and that adopting the measure is another sign of the state government's own addiction to aggressively regulating, controlling and criminalizing substances that help thousands of Utahns live day-to-day with an injury and pain rather than be debilitated by it.

"Our jails are filled by people whose only crime is drug possession," he said. "This has no real positive impact on society, and we would oppose this."

Rep. Richard Greenwood, R-Roy, said the logic of the argument would follow that "we could reduce the number of people in jail if we reduced the number of drugs with that classification."

"As a general statement you are correct," he said, noting that by the same token the state should reclassify alcohol and tobacco given their devastating impact on the health and well-being of Utah families.

The bill now moves to the House floor for full debate.

e-mail: jthalman@desnews.com