MARIJUANA PARAPHERNALIA CAN BE BOUGHT EASILY, LEGALLY

KALAMAZOO -- The use and sale of marijuana is illegal, but the pipes,
papers and other paraphernalia used to smoke the drug are available
- -- and legal.

The debate rages about the propriety of allowing seriously ill people
to legally use the drug.

But no one has batted an eye at the array of drug paraphernalia
available and on prominent display at gas stations, convenience
stores and neighborhood mom-and-pop operations.

The On The Rocks store on Portage Road, for instance, started selling
glass pipes and hookahs last November, employee Dawn Fassett said.

"They're very popular items," said Fassett, whose husband, Satar
Alkenani, owns the store. "We sell at least one per day."

The store will not sell the pipes or similar items to anyone younger
than 21 years old, Fassett said. Customers must show a driver's
license and are told the pipes are to be used only to smoke tobacco, she said.

"But what they do with the pipe after they buy it is their own
business," Fassett said.

Police said the pipes and other items can be used to smoke anything
from marijuana to opium.

"(People) are obviously not using these items to just smoke tobacco,"
Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety Executive Lt. John Uribe said.

Under the city's ordinance, it's a misdemeanor to sell drug
paraphernalia. For a person to be charged, according to the
ordinance, the item being sold must be primarily designed for use
with a controlled substance; be intended for use with a controlled
substance, or the person must have known the customer was going to
use a controlled substance with the item.

"We have to establish proof that the items are being sold for drug
use, but proving that is tough," Uribe said. "Having them sold is
helping perpetuate a drug culture in the city."

Bongs for tobacco?

Dilawar Malik thinks the phrase written in big letters on a display
case near the cash register at the South Westnedge Market says it all.

"TABACCO (sic) USE ONLY," it reads.

Inside the display case are nearly 100 multicolored glass pipes,
water bongs and other smoking paraphernalia of different shapes and
sizes. They range in cost from $10 to $40. You must be at least 18
years old to buy the items and ID must be shown, Malik said.

"I don't know what people do with them, but we sell them to smoke
tobacco with," said Malik, who helps run the store, which has been
selling the items for about eight years.

Behind the display case, on a shelf, are several colorful hookahs.

"Where I come from, people use the hookahs to smoke tobacco," said
Malik, a Pakistan native. "The water is a good way to filter the smoke."

Those purchasing the paraphernalia, Malik said, range "from college
students to men in three-piece suits." He said he sells about three
or four items per week.

Mike Yasenchak, of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency's Grand Rapids
office, said the DEA usually doesn't focus on small-business owners
who sell drug paraphernalia. But he acknowledged the sale of such
items is "a nationwide issue" and makes the drug culture seem acceptable.

"So far, it's not a violation of the law to sell these items," he said.