Jim Finnel
Fallen Cannabis Warrior & Ex News Moderator
You have to wonder what they're smoking up there in Wyoming.
Last week a federal judge sentenced a man to three years in prison on three counts of selling bongs and pipes - drug paraphernalia. Defendant Jeffrey Wayne Doles, 38, protested that the items he sold at stores in Gillette and Casper were intended to be used for tobacco and legal herbs and that he had no control over what his customers ultimately smoked.
No need to be alarmed, maybe, if you never use a bong, a hookah or other form of pipe commonly used to smoke illegal drugs.
But what's next? Felony possession of a butane lighter or a book of matches?
Lt. David Whitlock of the Colorado Springs Police Department said there's no crackdown in the offing, but when someone is busted for drug possession here, their paraphernalia is confiscated and sometimes misdemeanor charges are filed. Those aren't the sort of charges that can land you in federal prison for three years, however.
The Denver office of the Drug Enforcement Administration, which oversees operation in Wyoming, didn't return calls Tuesday, and a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Cheyenne, Wyo., was unavailable.
Lewie Lambert, co-owner of seven Independent Records outlets in Colorado Springs, Pueblo and Denver, said DEA is "just spending our tax dollars. We find it ludicrous."
Lambert said the federal law on paraphernalia "is very vague to begin with. It's a crap shoot." He recalled how Independent Records and other businesses lost a challenge to state law on paraphernalia in 1983 but ultimately won the case on appeal.
Lambert and his partners conceivably would be prime targets if the Justice Department decides to launch a bong crackdown in Colorado. To avoid that, signs are tacked to the wall with wording that sounds awfully close to what Doles told the federal judge last week in Wyoming.
On the wall at the Independent Records store at 3040 W. Colorado Ave., is a sign that advises the store's impressive collection of pipes are "for use with tobacco and legal smoking herbs ... and not intended for use with any illegal substance."
"We follow the law," store manager Cindy Sinclair said, adding that the Wyoming federal action merely amounted to "putting a small business owner out of business."
All head shops sell their pipes this way while winking at the law. On the wall on the other side of the Independent Records store are books and DVDs on how to grow marijuana.
Sinclair said it's all a bit ironic because the latest trend is smoking flavored tobacco in hookahs, which are sold in most head shops.
A small percentage of pot smoked in Colorado is legal too because voters approved a medicinal marijuana law.
Interesting stuff, but it misses the main point, which is that surely, DEA has more serious criminals to pursue than Doles. The next time you hear lawmakers or the Federal Bureau of Prisons complaining that federal prison guards in Florence are spread too thinly to keep track of all the inmates, ask why they're putting guys in prison for selling bongs.
Some of the nation's war on drugs is similar to Prohibition, one of America's worst-ever mistakes, making criminals out of ordinary citizens and jump-starting organized crime.
But even at the height of Prohibition, the feds didn't outlaw bottle openers.
News Hawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: Gazette.com
Author: BARRY NOREEN
Copyright: 2008 Freedom Communications
Contact: Homepage : Gazette.com
Website: DEA bust repeats mistakes of Prohibition
Last week a federal judge sentenced a man to three years in prison on three counts of selling bongs and pipes - drug paraphernalia. Defendant Jeffrey Wayne Doles, 38, protested that the items he sold at stores in Gillette and Casper were intended to be used for tobacco and legal herbs and that he had no control over what his customers ultimately smoked.
No need to be alarmed, maybe, if you never use a bong, a hookah or other form of pipe commonly used to smoke illegal drugs.
But what's next? Felony possession of a butane lighter or a book of matches?
Lt. David Whitlock of the Colorado Springs Police Department said there's no crackdown in the offing, but when someone is busted for drug possession here, their paraphernalia is confiscated and sometimes misdemeanor charges are filed. Those aren't the sort of charges that can land you in federal prison for three years, however.
The Denver office of the Drug Enforcement Administration, which oversees operation in Wyoming, didn't return calls Tuesday, and a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Cheyenne, Wyo., was unavailable.
Lewie Lambert, co-owner of seven Independent Records outlets in Colorado Springs, Pueblo and Denver, said DEA is "just spending our tax dollars. We find it ludicrous."
Lambert said the federal law on paraphernalia "is very vague to begin with. It's a crap shoot." He recalled how Independent Records and other businesses lost a challenge to state law on paraphernalia in 1983 but ultimately won the case on appeal.
Lambert and his partners conceivably would be prime targets if the Justice Department decides to launch a bong crackdown in Colorado. To avoid that, signs are tacked to the wall with wording that sounds awfully close to what Doles told the federal judge last week in Wyoming.
On the wall at the Independent Records store at 3040 W. Colorado Ave., is a sign that advises the store's impressive collection of pipes are "for use with tobacco and legal smoking herbs ... and not intended for use with any illegal substance."
"We follow the law," store manager Cindy Sinclair said, adding that the Wyoming federal action merely amounted to "putting a small business owner out of business."
All head shops sell their pipes this way while winking at the law. On the wall on the other side of the Independent Records store are books and DVDs on how to grow marijuana.
Sinclair said it's all a bit ironic because the latest trend is smoking flavored tobacco in hookahs, which are sold in most head shops.
A small percentage of pot smoked in Colorado is legal too because voters approved a medicinal marijuana law.
Interesting stuff, but it misses the main point, which is that surely, DEA has more serious criminals to pursue than Doles. The next time you hear lawmakers or the Federal Bureau of Prisons complaining that federal prison guards in Florence are spread too thinly to keep track of all the inmates, ask why they're putting guys in prison for selling bongs.
Some of the nation's war on drugs is similar to Prohibition, one of America's worst-ever mistakes, making criminals out of ordinary citizens and jump-starting organized crime.
But even at the height of Prohibition, the feds didn't outlaw bottle openers.
News Hawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: Gazette.com
Author: BARRY NOREEN
Copyright: 2008 Freedom Communications
Contact: Homepage : Gazette.com
Website: DEA bust repeats mistakes of Prohibition
