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 The
Ban of the
BONGS
By: Erin Keene
Ok,
we all know it's illegal to smoke pot. So why are bongs or glass pipes
available for purchase from stores on South Beach? For decades, bong
manufactures, glass blowers and head shop business owners have been
able to "legally" sell drug paraphernalia because they claim
their merchandise is intended for smoking tobacco or burning incense.
Sure, that's the reason why pot posters hang in the store window next
to t-shirts advertising the legalization of marijuana. Like an anonymous
web surfer pointed out on our message board: "Who would take
a bong hit of cigarette smoke? Gross!"
It turns out selling
drug paraphernalia is illegal. As stated under the Federal Drug Paraphernalia
Statute, "it is illegal to possess, sell, transport, import,
or export drug paraphernalia." But the industry and demand has
grown. As a result, raiding one location at a time has proven ineffective.
Back in 1990, Lana
Christine Acty's head shop, Posters 'N' Things, was searched and all
of her merchandise was confiscated. After she spent time in jail,
her store was fined $75,000. In 1997 Akhil Kumar Mishra and his wife,
Rajeshwari, owners of two head shops, were put in jail after their
head shops were raided. Their financial and computer records were
seized, which lead officials to big drug paraphernalia wholesalers
and drug dealing buyers. Although the charges on shop owners were
harsh, it hasn't scared off others, whose bong stores and pipe shops
continue to pop up. This brings up the argument: should our government
spend the time and money to enforce this law when we have bigger problems
to attend to?
According to a recent
press release, Attorney General John Ashcroft advocates the use of
federal funds in order to enforce the operation. "Quite simply,
the illegal drug paraphernalia industry has invaded the homes of families
across the country without their knowledge. This illegal billion-dollar
industry will no longer be ignored by law enforcement," said
Ashcroft.
With the help of
Drug Czar John Walters and DEA Administrator John Brown, Ashcroft
developed Operation Pipe Dreams and Operation Headhunter, the most
widespread anti-paraphernalia raid that went into action three weeks
before Operation Iraqi Freedom.
"People selling
drug paraphernalia are in essence no different than drug dealers.
They are as much a part of drug trafficking as silencers are a part
of criminal homicide," explains Brown.
Their first big attempt
to stop drug paraphernalia "dealers" consisted of a sneak
attack on head shop owners, drug paraphernalia distributors and manufacturers.
On February 24th, (the event came to be known as 2/24), more than
2,000 federal, state, and local officials across the country coordinated
busts that resulted in the confiscation of thousands of dollars worth
of merchandise and led to the dissection of computers, freezing of
bank accounts and shutting down websites. Not only were the businesses
raided, so were the shop owner's private homes. Fifty-six people were
charged and faced up to a maximum sentence of three years in jail
and a $200,000 fine.
The first to plead
guilty was Tommy Chong, the famous pothead from the Cheech and Chong
movies and more recently, star of That Seventies Show. Chong Glass,
as his pipe and bong business was called, was raided after he signed
a bong for undercover agents during one of his autograph sessions.
Beginning this month, he will begin his six to twelve month jail sentence.
American citizens
are aware of the bigger problems overlooked by Ashcroft and his policies.
Tracie Lynn Zimmerman, who was also indicted on 2/24, explained her
frustration and bewilderment.
"As I was sitting
in the squad car, I kept saying, 'Why are you doing this? We're going
to war and you guys are worrying about me?'" said Zimmerman,
as quoted in a recent Rolling Stone article.
Debra McCorkle's
angry rant on alternet.org, titled Operation Pipe Dreams Is a Nightmare,
claimed that: "[Mr. Brown's] equation of bong-makers with drug
traffickers is ludicrous at best… It seems a waste of resources
to carry out Operation Pipe Dreams in order to ensure that 55 pipe-sellers
will no longer be on the streets while terrorist cells await their
orders in the heartland of America. Doesn't Ashcroft have better things
to do?"
McCorkle continues
on to point out that gun silencers can be sold to anyone with a credit
card over the internet, but yet the government thinks it's more important
to focus on closing down online head shops. Since 2/24, not only actual
shops have been slammed by the DEA, many paraphernalia selling websites
have been shut down -- pipesforyou.com, jeromebaker.com, 420now.com
and many more. For anyone who has ever bought a bong online, the police
now have access to your transaction information on record! E-bay (the
popular online trading network) is just about the only website in
the United States where you can purchase a bong. Looks like you'll
just have to by your drug paraphernalia on an international website
and pay the overseas shipping.
Although Operation
Pipe Dreams and Operation Headhunter has only begun to make a dent
in closing drug related businesses, a lot of lives have already been
affected by the raids including bong manufacturers, glass blowers,
website designers, store owners and their employees, and the consumers.
"We'll either
have to stock up on glass pieces before the rest of the shops close,
or smoke a whole lot of joints," said a local Miami pot smoker.
Most of the people
affected already have a plan to get around or stop the operations.
"They just lit
a fire under tens of thousands of artists' asses," one glassblower
told Cannabis Culture magazine. "Not one person in my field will
forget to vote come re-election, guaranteed. Also, many of us are
considering running for office ourselves. Most of us are young, and
that means we have more energy to fight than 50-year-old politicians…we
can make a lot of noise and we will!"
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