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there are a couple of stores in the city where i live (wilmington, NC) that sell cigars. that's not their main thrust, but they do sell cigars. and lighters. and pipes -- but apparently there are "good" pipes and "bad" pipes.

along with all this, these stores also sell various blends of tobacco -- cigarette tobacco, pipe tobacco and herbal blends. a few days ago there was a HUGE "bust" and the stores had much of their stock taken away as "evidence" that they were dealing in "drug paraphenalia."

just made me wonder if i should worry about having my own two pipes and a couple of lighters taken away by the feds -- i wonder if my nibo 3-flame lighter, by virtue of it looking "way cool" somehow makes it into "drug paraphenalia." after all, i COULD conceivably light a joint with it! and my tobacco pipes? i COULD conceivably smoke pot in those!

better not buy any more cans of soda, folks. you KNOW they can be made into a bong!

here's what the local paper's editor had to say about this big bust (the feds came in with national photographers and videographers to document this amazing crime scene):

Busting retailers: Far out, man

To confiscate marijuana-smoking gadgets sold openly in two Wilmington stores apparently required law-enforcement officers from the federal, state and local levels.

Led by John Ashcroft's U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney Frank D. Whitney, intrepid officers from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Marshals Service, the State Bureau of Investigation, the New Hanover County Sheriff's Department and the Wilmington Police Department somehow managed to detect the presence of dopey paraphernalia and seize it from stores here and in Raleigh.

It was as if the massed forces of Eliot Ness had busted one of Al Capone's speakeasies and confiscated the little umbrellas that went in the tropical cocktails.

Of course, photos and video footage of cheesy smoke dispensers would look good in campaign commercials, and probably will.

Americans are threatened by terrorists trying to murder us and destroy our free institutions. We're threatened by killer drugs such as methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin. And to be sure, it's said that the marijuana on sale these days is much more powerful than the weed some adults remember (or think they do) from their hippy-dippy days.

But terrorists and drug dealers are hard to find and convict. Retail clerks whose dubious wares are on brazen display don't present quite so difficult a challenge.

Fortunately, no officers were harmed in the making of this media event.

I don't know exactly what they took, nor if the store was issued any warning to stop selling any goods, or even if the paraphenalia was indeed decidedly drug related.
But please don't use the "terrorist" excuse as a reason to NOT enforce a law.

We could just as easily say: "there are terrorists trying to kill us all, and they bust me for driving drunk, because my swerving truck was easier to find than a terrorist."

The issues are separate.

But none of this changes the fact that my torch lighter would most definately work for smoking crack...

chong is serving or has served 8 months in jail for selling bongs on the web.

ashcroft and crew are maniacs.

tail, i'm ex-law enforcement, and i agree with you up to a point. but is the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT really so hard up with laws to enforce that they have to gang up on a small city retail store? yes, i can see taking the bongs away, but couldn't the local PD handle that??

why on earth did the feds have to go in with the staties and local PD -- bringing a camera crew, btw -- to do an "everyone freeze" swat maneuver -- to take a dozen hookah pipes and terrify a couple of retail clerks? not exactly like they're selling uzis under the table, you know? and there were NO drugs there, just pipes that can be and are definitely used for smoking tobacco -- i've smoked with a buddy there, a lovely vanilla blend that he bought in the shop.

they sell tobacco. they sell pipes.

because some of the pipes -- SOME, not ALL! -- are also used by some -- SOME, not ALL! -- to smoke pot, we had to have federal, state and local troops go in with guns drawn?

there's enforcing the law, yes, and then there is major, major overkill. and it's very questionable to me when the FEDS come in to enforce the taking of legal smoking paraphenalia. take the bongs, fine -- the local PD could have done that in 10 minutes -- but a swat team scenario to do away with pipes?

what makes one pipe legal and the other a national threat that requires armed feds to raid a place to snag 'em??

puff: i will say this -- my county has an ENORMOUS problem with crack, crystal meth and heroin.

we have two local agencies that refuse to cooperate with each other to eradicate these problems. the sheriff's dept. and the local PD had a joint task force going on that recently split up because they couldn't agree on what to do or who would get the glory from it.

last year something like 19 USMC troops from camp lejeune were busted here in wilmington for selling meth, coke, heroin and E at night clubs downtown. the marine corps lowered the boom on them, you bet. others (civvies) arrested with these guys? probation at the WORST!

but god help you if your pipe doesn't look like my pipe!