{"data":{"id":"us-ky/krs-218a.350","jurisdiction":"us-ky","citation":"KRS 218A.350","heading":"Prohibited practices concerning substances that simulate controlled","body":"substances -- Penalties.\n(1) No person shall sell or transfer any substance, other than a controlled substance,\nwith the representation or upon creation of an impression that the sub stance which\nis sold or transferred is a controlled substance.\n(2) No person shall possess for sale or transfer any substance designed in any manner,\nincluding but not limited to design of the item or its container, markings, or color,\nto simulate a controlled substance.\n(3) No person shall possess for sale or transfer any substance, not covered by\nsubsection (2) of this section which is not a controlled substance with the\nrepresentation or upon the creation of an impression that the substance held for sale\nor transfer is a controlled substance.\n(4) No person shall manufacture, package, repackage, advertise, or mark any substance,\nwhich is not a controlled substance, in such a manner as to resemble a controlled\nsubstance, for the purpose of creating the impr ession that the substance is a\ncontrolled substance.\n(5) For the purpose of determining whether this section has been violated, the court or\nother authority shall include in its consideration the following:\n(a) Whether the noncontrolled substance was packa ged in a manner normally\nused for the illegal sale of controlled substances;\n(b) Whether the sale or attempted sale included an exchange of or demand for\nmoney or other property as consideration, and whether the amount of the\nconsideration was substantiall y greater than the reasonable value of the\nnoncontrolled substance.\n(c) Whether the physical appearance of the noncontrolled substance is\nsubstantially identical to that of a controlled substance.\n(6) In any prosecution brought under this section, it is no t a defense to a violation of\nthis section that the defendant believed the noncontrolled substance to actually be a\ncontrolled substance.\n(7) (a) Any person who violates any of the provisions of this section shall be guilty of\na Class A misdemeanor for the  first offense and a Class D felony for\nsubsequent offenses.\n(b) In lieu of the fine amounts otherwise allowed under KRS Chapter 534, for any\noffense under this subsection the court may impose a maximum fine of double\nthe defendant's gain from the commissi on of the offense, in which case any\nfine money collected shall be divided between the same parties, in the same\nratio, and for the same purposes as established for forfeited property under\nKRS 218A.420.\n(c) It shall be an affirmative defense to an offense  under this subsection that the\ndefendant committed the offense during the course of the defendant's\nemployment as an employee of a retail store and that the defendant did not\nknow and should not have known that the trafficked substance was a synthetic\ndrug.","path":["KRS Chapter 218A"],"source_url":"https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=40035","current_through":"Includes enactments through the 2026 Regular Session","vintage":"09/05/2026","retrieved_at":"2026-09-05T20:52:30Z","sha256":"762801d0f725017738f66bce484e4e95dbd6b8336aa67912a0911313a9c4ae22","source_id":"us-ky","stale":false,"prev":"us-ky/krs-218a.324","next":"us-ky/krs-218a.390"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}