At Monday night's Orion Township Board of Trustees meeting, board members passed a Synthetic Marijuana and Dangerous Products Emergency Ordinance banning the use and sale of designer drugs, such as K2 and Spice, within the township.

By putting an emergency ordinance in place, the township is waiving the typical procedures of approving a first and second read of the ordinance, making the ordinance effective immediately.

"If we adopt this tonight we've got a tool that our deputies can use beginning in the morning," Supervisor JoAnn Van Tassel said.

Locally, citizens and groups such as North Oakland Community Coalition have been working hard to stop the sale of the drugs. Likewise, Oakland County officials recently announced an initiative asking businesses to pledge not to sell the drug, and those that notify the county that they will not be selling the drug will be given a window decal for their business announcing their pledge.

Area cities such as Royal Oak, West Bloomfield and Shelby Township have issued emergency ordinances banning the substances as well.

Trustee John Steimel, who said he heard that the state could be signing in legislation banning the substances as early as Tuesday, said he hoped that the motivation for the township ban wasn't for publicity since the state law is just around the corner. Trustee Michael Flood that even if there was a short amount of time between passing the local ordinance and the state law being approved that it was worth it to save even one life.

"I'm concerned about young lives in this township," Flood said.

Orion Township Substation Lt. Dan Toth noted that the availability of the substance is the main concern, and that deputies can start circulating the news immediately, ensuring that township gas stations and stores selling the products get them off their shelves.

"I think that everybody realizes that this is a threat to public safety," Toth said, noting that he thought the emergency ban was a 'geat step forward'.