CONVENIENCE STORE PEN A CRACK PIPE IN DISGUISE

RALEIGH - For years, determined drug users have fashioned crack
cocaine pipes out of air fresheners, plastic rum bottles or tiny
vases with fake flowers inside.

Now they can get one disguised as a ballpoint pen, sold "under the
counter" at convenience stores, and a Southeast Raleigh group wants
the new paraphernalia stamped out.

"This is called 'pen in a glass,' " said the Rev. Melvin Whitley,
showing the pen inside a 4-inch glass tube to members of the Raleigh
Community Council. "Get this, a Chore Boy scrubber and a lighter, and
you've got the fastest way to addiction."

The state legislature has taken up the fight against drug
paraphernalia. House Bill 953 would require retailers to store glass
vials and cigarette papers behind the counter, take photo
identifications from would-be buyers and keep their names on record
for two years.

Whitley has already fought "love roses" in the Bull City, helping to
enact a $500 fine for stores that sell the tubes of fake flowers.
Hearing Whitley's news of the pens, the Raleigh Community Council
voted Thursday night to push the City Council for an ordinance that
would ban their sale.

"Drugs are such a perceived problem in the African-American
community," said Bruce Lightner of the community council. "It went
from rose in a glass to pen in a glass."

A "pen in a glass" consists of a glass tube with an ink cartridge
inside, which is easily removed. Typically, it sells for $3, and the
scrubber, which serves as a filter, costs about $2.

An hour's search Friday turned up the pens, all hidden behind the
counter, being sold at four convenience stores in Raleigh. At the
Stop & Quick on South Blount Street, the pen sold for $5, and the
clerk offered the Chore Boy without being asked.

Some stores refuse to stock the pens, even though it's legal to sell
them. Peace Street Market, near downtown Raleigh, does not. At A.J.'s
Grocery Grill on Bragg Street, the manager said he pushed the owner
to stop stocking the fake roses because it bothered him.

"If you are going to give it to a loved one, then I say, 'Yes,' "
Baboucarr Njie, the manager, said of the flowers in glass. "But if
you are trying to abuse it, to destroy yourself, it does not sit
right with my conscience." Still, state alcohol agents note the pens'
presence in stores across Raleigh, though confined to areas with
heavier drug traffic. "While they can't tell stores not to sell them,
we do tell them what they're used for," said Jeff Lasater, the ALE
supervisor in Raleigh. "But that's usually not news."

Community council members said they would try to get on the City
Council's agenda in June.

Raleigh police spokesman Jim Sughrue said the department would likely
support a change. "Anything we can do to make it harder to acquire or
use drugs is going to be a good thing," he said.

City Attorney Thomas McCormick said such an ordinance would be
difficult to propose because drug paraphernalia are regulated by
state law. Meanwhile, Lightner offered a suggestion to stem pen
sales. "Maybe when you go into the store, you have to prove you can
write," he joked. "If not, you bust them."