STATE SENATOR WANTS BONG BUYERS TO TAKE A (TAX) HIT

It's A Government Conspiracy, Man!

These words may be echoed by Cheech and Chong fans across the state
if the General Assembly approves legislation that places a $20 tax on
tobacco paraphernalia products and requires retailers to record
buyers' identities.

Introduced in two bills Wednesday by Sen. C. Anthony Muse (D-Prince
George's County), the tax would apply to everything from Bob
Marley-adorned bongs to those pipes with the righteous little skulls.

But it isn't stoners Muse is trying to clamp down on - it's children.

"Kids going into gas stations in my neighborhood, going into record
shops, and buying not only bongs, but screens for the rocks with the
picture of marijuana" are what the legislation would target, the
senator observed. "I'd like to have it outlawed completely," the senator added.

However, because such paraphernalia is legal to sell in the state
under the guise of tobacco use (let it be known that Muse isn't
buying that jive, though) the senator must resort to shaking up the
head-shop establishment on the financial front. Taxes and records
will create a paper trail that he hopes will eventually draw
manufacturers and retailers out of the smoke to discuss what the
devices are really used for.

"My contention," Muse said, "is that it is no more than drug
paraphernalia - not tobacco paraphernalia."

If approved in hearings next month, the additional tax revenue would
add to the state's health fund for children and could bud into
hearings that will redefine tobacco paraphernalia as illegal, Muse said.

The legislation will be amended to exclude rolling papers, per a
"friendly amendment" to be presented by tobacco giant Philip Morris
USA at the hearing, Muse said.

In response to the buzz-kill legislation, some Marylanders have smoke
blowing out their ears.

"Oh, that's ludicrous," said one manager of a smoke shop in Towson
who declined to be identified. "I understand what [Muse's] quest is,
but when somebody purchases something from me, what he does with it
afterwards is his business."

While acknowledging that some people use tobacco paraphernalia to
ingest narcotics, the manager denied that the devices are intended
for that purpose.

"It's like when someone sells rope in the hardware store ... [it's
not] for people to go hang themselves with," the manager said.

Stacia Cosner, president of the university's Students for Sensible
Drug Policy, said Muse's proposal would not only burden business
owners with extra record keeping but would also drive consumers to
buy their smoking gear underground, the same place they buy illegal drugs.

"I don't think you can just tax away drug use," she said.

But smokers may not have to hold their breath for very long.
Considering the many sticky legal issues surrounding Muse's ultimate
goal of a bong-free Maryland, future legislation will likely burn
out, said Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

"That would be the very first time in the United States, at the state
or federal level, that anyone ever equated" tobacco use with the use
of controlled substances, St. Pierre said.

"The frank answer for how this gets resolved?" St. Pierre said. "When
tobacco joins marijuana as being completely and totally illegal."