TAYLORVILLE, Ill. – This week, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner signed into law a ban on the sale of synthetic drugs called “bath salts,” The Pantagraph reports. “With this law, we’re going to be able to go after the retailers, and it’ll help us tremendously,” said Christian County Sheriff Bruce Kettelkamp. “It’s been very frustrating for us in law enforcement dealing with the problem with bath salts because these chemists are out in front of us.”

Starting January 1, selling or offering to sell “any synthetic or natural material containing any quantity of a cathinone chemical structure” will be a Class 3 felony and carries up to a $150,000 fine. The law also gives local jurisdictions the right to yank the licenses of stores who receive a conviction under the ban.

“This law … helps law enforcement get after the broad category of these cathinones and gets after the labeling—the false, misleading labeling—that can go on these compounds at retailers so we can try to put an end to the ready availability of these very dangerous, very lethal drugs,” the governor said.

Synthetic cathinones are stimulants that are chemically similar to a controlled substance found in the khat plant and have been sold at retailers such as adult stores, independent convenience stores and head shops, according to a 2011 report from the U.S. Justice Department’s National Drug Intelligence Center. They are typically packaged to look like normal consumer products, hence the nickname “bath salts.”

The Illinois Retail Merchants Association supports the law, although its manager of government affairs, Alec Laird, pointed out that the ban “doesn’t really impact our members,” because they don’t stock bath salts.