A CRACK PIPE, OR A NOVELTY?

The artificial flowers packaged in a palm-sized glass tube cost less
than $2, but at a North Seattle convenience store, the clerk keeps
them in a Plexiglas case, knowing how easily the popular items can
be shoplifted.

When a customer bought a few of the tubes, advertised as Wild
Rose-brand novelties, the clerk made a suggestion.

"These ones are really good, too," she said, pointing to a box of
pens with glass shafts.

When asked for what, the clerk hesitated. "I don't know what they're
good for. They're just good."

Seattle police say the glass tubes are often used as crack pipes. But
while state law prohibits the sale of drug paraphernalia, it would be
difficult to prosecute the convenience-store employee without
evidence that she sold the tubes to be used as crack pipes.

"We see those glass pipes on the streets," police spokesman Jeff
Kappel said. "But when we see them, they're often cracked and have
drug-residue on them."

In Seattle, some residents have complained that laws need to be
strengthened to more specifically target potential drug paraphernalia
sold at minimarts. However, City Attorney Tom Carr said he thinks
that while paraphernalia sales are a problem, the issue already is
being addressed.

"I do not see a need to change our law right now," he said, of the
state statute.

In Spokane, city leaders expect later this year to expand an
ordinance prohibiting drug paraphernalia to include language
specifying such items. They're taking guidance from Pierce County's
drug statute, passed in 2005, which includes the phrase "whether
useful for nondrug related purposes or not" when defining paraphernalia.

A few years ago in Seattle, a defendant charged with possessing drug
paraphernalia argued that his fireproof pen wasn't intended for drug
use, but was convicted, Carr said. Deputy city attorneys have
successfully prosecuted others who used similar arguments to defend
having the novelty rose tubes.

Police say crack pipes, which often break, creating sharp edges, can
double as weapons or can cause problems near the stores where they are sold.

"It may attract an element of the population that many people would
prefer not be in their neighborhood," Kappel said.

Carr said Seattle police reinforce laws prohibiting the sale of crack
pipes generally by educating convenience-store owners. Then, they
will go undercover -- and are able to buy crack pipes in about 10
percent of the cases, he said.

A retailer can be busted without specifically identifying a novelty
item as a crack pipe, but he said it's easier to prosecute if
attorneys can prove that the person knows what it can be used for.

"The undercover officers tend not to be subtle," Carr said. The
officers "ask for a crack pipe."

In 2007, the City Attorney's Office filed 34 cases involving charges
of selling an object used to ingest an illegal substance. City
attorneys filed 447 possession-related cases for attempted violation
of the Uniform Controlled Substances Act.

Carr said the "vast majority" of the possession cases involved crack pipes.

Deputy city prosecutor Howard Delaney in Spokane began working on
that city's statute after a complaint about the glass pipes being
sold as novelties at more than a dozen area stores.

"A lot of people wouldn't know what those glass tubes are used for,
but a meth user or a crack head would know what they're good for," he
said. "They sit around all day and think of stuff to use, so we're
trying to look at what's coming up as well as what's already being used."

Pierce County deputy prosecutor Mark Lindquist, the trial team chief
of the drug unit, said no criminal charges have been brought in
Superior Court under the county statute.

"But my understanding is, yes, it has been effective," he said. "To
some degree, it was designed to get business owners to be good
citizens as opposed to resulting in a lot of arrests right away."

Pierce County Sheriff's Department spokesman Ed Troyer said the
ordinance has reduced the blatant sale of drug pipes significantly.

Deputies still see some drug pipes disguised as novelties, but say
problems with paraphernalia-related crimes haven't been on their
radar since the statute passed, Troyer said.

"The problem is, you can take an empty pop can and make it a crack
pipe," he said. "You can take a pen apart and make it a crack pipe.

"You're not ever going to be able to completely get rid of it."