Fluids left in bongs and water pipes can no longer be considered as part of the total weight of the mixture when authorities charge people with drug offenses, under a clause tucked into a judiciary and public safety bill that has been sent to Gov. Tim Walz to sign.

The governor is expected to sign 192-page bill in the coming days.

In 2009, the Minnesota Supreme Court in a 4-3 decision ruled that bong water can be considered a controlled substance under state criminal law, finding that bong water was a substance and mixture “because it is a substance containing a controlled substance.”

The clause in the new bill awaiting the governor’s signature would reverse that decision and means prosecutors will have to separate the weight of the bong water from the actual substance being smoked.

“Water is heavy,” said Alicia Granse, an attorney with the Minnesota ACLU who in March testified before the Minnesota Senate Judiciary Committee to get the law changed. “Prosecutors were able to treat the water as pure drugs because it was in a bong.”

Granse said that would be similar to having a beer bottle with cigarette butts inside, then charging somebody based on the entire weight of the bottle but not taking into account the tobacco inside.

The law, if enacted, states that “a mixture does not include the fluid used in a​ water pipe or any amount of a controlled substance that is dissolved in the pipe’s fluid.”