Temecula: Looking Over Their Shoulder

[User]

The owners of the area's smoke shops are a little paranoid. And it has nothing to do with marijuana.

In January, the El Cajon Police Department raided seven smoke shops that were selling small hand-held pipes and large water pipes, the smoking accessories that got both Tommy Chong and Michael Phelps in trouble. Late last year, shops in San Diego County's Imperial Beach, Vista, San Marcos, Imperial Beach and Escondido were hit.

According to the state's Health and Safety Code, normally innocuous items such as envelopes, balloons, blenders, bowls, containers and spoons can all be considered drug paraphernalia if they are intended for use with drugs.

The code also lists some of the more common items associated with drug use: pipes such as chillums, bongs, roach clips, syringes, ******* spoons and ******* vials.

In Temecula, two stores on Jefferson Avenue sell handhelds and water pipes, and plenty of other stores and shops in Southwest County offer similar products. Some of the local stores also have locations in San Diego County. The owners and managers of the stores with San Diego County locations turned down requests for comment. Other store owners didn't want to comment, in part to avoid stirring up any local public protest.

A Murrieta shop owner, who spoke on the condition that her name would not be used, said she has been following the legal action in San Diego County and, like many of her colleagues, she would like to know whether local law enforcement agencies are considering a similar type of campaign.

"It could be easily done here as well," she said.

If a similar raid were staged here, the owner said, most, if not all, of the area's smoke shop businesses would go under because of loss of revenue from the sale of glass water pipes, which can cost hundreds of dollars.

Losing her inventory, which includes dozens of colorful handheld pipes, hookahs and tall water pipes encased in glass cabinets, would "absolutely kill us," she said.

In the El Cajon raids, officers seized more than 15,000 items they say are evidence, a staggering amount of merchandise worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

El Cajon police Lt. Steve Shakowski said in a recent phone interview that the department's officers, assisted by a coalition of law enforcement agencies, removed everything except for hookahs, the communal smoking devices that allow a party of smokers to enjoy flavored tobacco.

"We took pretty much everything that would be typically considered for illegal purposes," he said.

The list of contraband, which authorities put in storage until the smoke shop owners have their day in court, included numerous items that could be used for smoking tobacco.

"I've been in law enforcement for 25 years ---- 11 in narcotics
and I've never seen anything other than marijuana or hash being smoked in those pipes," Shakowski said.

Before giving the go-ahead for the raid, the Police Department and the San Diego County district attorney's office gave the shops fair warning, he said. Each shop was sent a letter detailing the legal risks associated with selling specific products that could be considered paraphernalia.

Of the six smoke shops in El Cajon contacted, five continued to sell the products, Shakowski said.

Paul Levikow, a spokesman for the San Diego County district attorney's office, pointed to the state's Health and Safety Code as the legal undergirding for the office's case.

According to the code, anything "designed for use or intended for use" can be defined as paraphernalia.

As for the long-standing claim that the pipes and water pipessold in smoke shops are supposed to be used for tobacco, Levikow said the design of some of the smoking devices scuttles the argument.

"You aren't going to put tobacco in a single-hitter," he said, referring to the small pipes that are often used to smoke a small bud of marijuana.

Allen St. Pierre, executive director of a national organization that lobbies for the reform of marijuana laws, said there is nothing intrinsically illegal about a pipe.

Contacted at his Washington, D.C., office, St. Pierre said an object can't be paraphernalia until is used, making the recent raids in San Diego the equivalent of "thought crimes."

"I cannot believe that when this gets to the courts, it will stand," he said.

St. Pierre said California state law allows for the use of medical marijuana, making anything that's used to smoke that marijuana a "medical delivery device."

While local smoke shop owners might be nervous in advance of the upcoming court dates, St. Pierre said they won't be abandoned if they encounter legal troubles.

There are attorneys throughout California who are members of the marijuana reform movement, and he said they will mount a vigorous defense on behalf of the San Diego County smoke shop owners.

As for the local shops, Temecula Police Chief Jerry Williams said his officers routinely visit the city's smoke shops to look at the items for sale, and he said the visits have not raised questions about the stores' practices.

"There is no history of problems here," he said.


News Hawk: User: http://www.420magazine.com/
Source: Californian, The (Escondido, CA)
Copyright: 2009 North County Times - Lee Enterprises
Contact: calopinion@californian.com
Website: Californian Home :North County Times - Californian
Author: Aaron Claverie

[Weed420]

Yeah I thought pipes are legal in Cali? What happens if you have an old fashion tobacco pipe? A tobacco rolling machine? Geez, are there in patriots left in the police force and DA's office any more?

[TorturedSoul]

Originally Posted by User

El Cajon police Lt. Steve Shakowski said in a recent phone interview that the department's officers, assisted by a coalition of law enforcement agencies, removed everything except for hookahs, the communal smoking devices that allow a party of smokers to enjoy flavored tobacco.

"We took pretty much everything that would be typically considered for illegal purposes," he said.

The list of contraband, which authorities put in storage until the smoke shop owners have their day in court, included numerous items that could be used for smoking tobacco.

"I've been in law enforcement for 25 years ---- 11 in narcotics
and I've never seen anything other than marijuana or hash being smoked in those pipes," Shakowski said.

Before giving the go-ahead for the raid, the Police Department and the San Diego County district attorney's office gave the shops fair warning, he said. Each shop was sent a letter detailing the legal risks associated with selling specific products that could be considered paraphernalia.

Of the six smoke shops in El Cajon contacted, five continued to sell the products, Shakowski said.

Paul Levikow, a spokesman for the San Diego County district attorney's office, pointed to the state's Health and Safety Code as the legal undergirding for the office's case.

According to the code, anything "designed for use or intended for use" can be defined as paraphernalia.

As for the long-standing claim that the pipes and water pipessold in smoke shops are supposed to be used for tobacco, Levikow said the design of some of the smoking devices scuttles the argument.

"You aren't going to put tobacco in a single-hitter," he said, referring to the small pipes that are often used to smoke a small bud of marijuana.

Ironic, since when I started trying to cut down on my tobacco usage I started smoking out of a Protopipe and... you guessed it, a one-hitter (Dugout).