Dr. Leospace
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The county will consider making it harder to sell items, like pipes, that can be used to ingest drugs.
A new law that seeks to quash the sale of products some associate with illegal drug use may be headed to the books in Pinellas County.
Now in draft form, the proposed law is the work of a Drug Paraphernalia Abatement Task Force that County Commission Chairman Ken Welch helped organize in October.
Pinellas State Attorney Bernie McCabe, a task force member, said that prosecutions for paraphernalia possession normally occur only when drug residue is found on an item, such as cocaine deposits in a pipe.
Prosecution for the sale of paraphernalia is more difficult because under state law, people can be found guilty only when it has been proven they knew the item they sold would be used to ingest drugs, he said.
The new law would not require such proof. Instead, anybody who reasonably should have known that what they sold, advertised or manufactured was going to be used to take illegal drugs would be in violation of the law. A proprietor of a convenience store, for example, should know that a pipe bearing a marijuana leaf is likely to be used for taking illegal drugs.
The ordinance would also bar minors from entering businesses, including convenience stores and gas stations, that sell such paraphernalia, unless they are with a parent or guardian.
Owners of specialty shops that sell things such as water pipes, small canisters of nitrous oxide that can be inhaled and detoxification solutions that can be taken before drug tests oppose the law.
They say their businesses are easy scapegoats for government officials looking to appear tough on drugs, when their pipes are actually sold for tobacco use and the nitrous oxide canisters are used by bakers to dispense whipped cream.
It's a position Welch finds ridiculous.
"For these guys to say these items are not being sold to use drugs kind of insults the intelligence of people who are looking at this issue seriously," he said.
Leo Calzadilla, owner of Purple Haze Tobacco & Accessories in St. Petersburg, said the proposed law is just as absurd.
By its logic, he said, a Home Depot cashier selling a can of spray paint - which is sometimes inhaled to get high - could be breaking the law.
"Anything that is made by man or nature can be used improperly," he said. "You can take an apple and make it into a pipe. So now we are going to stop growing apples?"
Calzadilla, 44, says many of his customers are lovers of flavored tobaccos, and that anyone who comes into his shop who appears intoxicated or mentions use of illegal drugs is shown the door.
He objects to the charge that his business may fuel drug abuse.
"A crack head is not going to come into my store and buy a $100 tobacco pipe," Calzadilla said. "He is going to go into the local convenience store and buy a can of soda and smoke his crack from out of that."
Welch argues that there is a difference between a soda can or an apple and a water pipe that only the wilfully ignorant can't recognize is manufactured for and sold to marijuana users.
In addition to the ordinance, the task force is recommending the county contact local gas station and convenience store owners, as well their corporate parents, to let them know that the pipes and screens found not far from the candy rack are the targets of the new law.
Violators could face a fine of $500 or 60 days in jail. Repeat offenders could see their businesses closed down.
McCabe and Welch agree that the proposed law is not going to put a huge dent in the drug problem. But it will limit easy access to paraphernalia, they say, and put local government on the record.
"It sends the right message," Welch said, "that we are not going to tolerate profiteering from the sale of items that facilitate drug use."
The County Commission will hear the task force recommendations Thursday and will likely set a date for a public hearing on the proposal.
If the law does take effect, Calzadilla said, he may take legal action on the grounds that the ordinance invites selective enforcement.
By WILL VAN SANT, Times Staff Writer
Published June 18, 2006
A new law that seeks to quash the sale of products some associate with illegal drug use may be headed to the books in Pinellas County.
Now in draft form, the proposed law is the work of a Drug Paraphernalia Abatement Task Force that County Commission Chairman Ken Welch helped organize in October.
Pinellas State Attorney Bernie McCabe, a task force member, said that prosecutions for paraphernalia possession normally occur only when drug residue is found on an item, such as cocaine deposits in a pipe.
Prosecution for the sale of paraphernalia is more difficult because under state law, people can be found guilty only when it has been proven they knew the item they sold would be used to ingest drugs, he said.
The new law would not require such proof. Instead, anybody who reasonably should have known that what they sold, advertised or manufactured was going to be used to take illegal drugs would be in violation of the law. A proprietor of a convenience store, for example, should know that a pipe bearing a marijuana leaf is likely to be used for taking illegal drugs.
The ordinance would also bar minors from entering businesses, including convenience stores and gas stations, that sell such paraphernalia, unless they are with a parent or guardian.
Owners of specialty shops that sell things such as water pipes, small canisters of nitrous oxide that can be inhaled and detoxification solutions that can be taken before drug tests oppose the law.
They say their businesses are easy scapegoats for government officials looking to appear tough on drugs, when their pipes are actually sold for tobacco use and the nitrous oxide canisters are used by bakers to dispense whipped cream.
It's a position Welch finds ridiculous.
"For these guys to say these items are not being sold to use drugs kind of insults the intelligence of people who are looking at this issue seriously," he said.
Leo Calzadilla, owner of Purple Haze Tobacco & Accessories in St. Petersburg, said the proposed law is just as absurd.
By its logic, he said, a Home Depot cashier selling a can of spray paint - which is sometimes inhaled to get high - could be breaking the law.
"Anything that is made by man or nature can be used improperly," he said. "You can take an apple and make it into a pipe. So now we are going to stop growing apples?"
Calzadilla, 44, says many of his customers are lovers of flavored tobaccos, and that anyone who comes into his shop who appears intoxicated or mentions use of illegal drugs is shown the door.
He objects to the charge that his business may fuel drug abuse.
"A crack head is not going to come into my store and buy a $100 tobacco pipe," Calzadilla said. "He is going to go into the local convenience store and buy a can of soda and smoke his crack from out of that."
Welch argues that there is a difference between a soda can or an apple and a water pipe that only the wilfully ignorant can't recognize is manufactured for and sold to marijuana users.
In addition to the ordinance, the task force is recommending the county contact local gas station and convenience store owners, as well their corporate parents, to let them know that the pipes and screens found not far from the candy rack are the targets of the new law.
Violators could face a fine of $500 or 60 days in jail. Repeat offenders could see their businesses closed down.
McCabe and Welch agree that the proposed law is not going to put a huge dent in the drug problem. But it will limit easy access to paraphernalia, they say, and put local government on the record.
"It sends the right message," Welch said, "that we are not going to tolerate profiteering from the sale of items that facilitate drug use."
The County Commission will hear the task force recommendations Thursday and will likely set a date for a public hearing on the proposal.
If the law does take effect, Calzadilla said, he may take legal action on the grounds that the ordinance invites selective enforcement.
By WILL VAN SANT, Times Staff Writer
Published June 18, 2006
