McGraw sued Alpharetta-based Nutragenomics Manufacturing LLC in April. McGraw has said the company was a `"significant distributor" of ingredients used to make drugs known as bath salts and synthetic marijuana, among other things.
The company agreed in an order entered Wednesday to place a notice on its website that it does not sell to West Virginia customers. It also agreed to provide a database of its West Virginia customers from Jan. 1, 2008, to the present and the amount of products they ordered.
McGraw touted the order in a news release Thursday, saying the order banned the company from doing business in the state.
"Cutting off the supply of these illicit substances at the source is central to ending this debilitating menace," McGraw said in a statement.
But Nutragenomics attorney Leah Macia says the company entered into the agreement voluntarily because it was not doing anything illegal.
"We weren't engaged in any of the conduct that he wanted us to stop doing, that's why it was just a simple matter to enter into an agreement," Macia said.
The agreement does not end the lawsuit, which will proceed.
A state law went into effect in April 2011 targeting chemicals meant to produce effects similar to cocaine and marijuana. The drugs have street names such as K2, Spice and bath salts.
Federal law bans specific ingredients used in the manufacturing and sale of synthetic drugs, but McGraw and Chad Napier, commander of the Metro Drug Unit in Kanawha and Putnam counties, have said manufacturers change the molecular structure of the ingredients in order to skirt the law.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2012/7/250880