(David Kohl/AP)
In the war on drugs, it's Rob Portman 1, flesh-eating zombies 0.
Following a recent string of attacks around the country involving people who ingested the synthetic drug known as "bath salts" and then attacked victims and ate their flesh, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman introduced an amendment to a Senate FDA bill that would implement a federal ban on the substance.
The bill passed the Senate 92-4 on Tuesday and is on its way to the White House, where the president is expected to sign it.
"My amendment to ban these drugs at the federal level will better enable federal and state authorities to combat this growing epidemic," Portman said in a statement after the vote. "Synthetic drugs are blinding some to the point where they lose sight of their own humanity, spurring reckless, horrific acts across the country. By banning these substances at the federal level and authorizing the DEA to pursue the manufacturers of these drugs across state lines, passage of this measure is an important step in reversing this streak of devastating crimes."
The most famous case of alleged bath salt abuse occurred late this spring, when a police officer in Miami shot and killed a naked man on the side of a causeway who he found eating the face of another naked man.
Update: The Miami Herald reported on Wednesday that the man found eating the other man's face "had no drugs in his system other than marijuana," according to the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's office. The word "alleged" was also added after publication in the last sentence of this article.