PARAPHERNALIA IS DRUG LAW'S FOCUS

The County May Make It Harder To Sell Items, Like Pipes, That Can Be
Used To Ingest Drugs

A new law that seeks to quash the sale of products some associate
with illegal drug use may be headed to the books in Pinellas County.

Now in draft form, the proposed law is the work of a Drug
Paraphernalia Abatement Task Force that County Commission Chairman
Ken Welch helped organize in October.

Pinellas State Attorney Bernie McCabe, a task force member, said that
prosecutions for paraphernalia possession normally occur only when
drug residue is found on an item, such as cocaine deposits in a pipe.

Prosecution for the sale of paraphernalia is more difficult because
under state law a person can be found guilty only when it's proved
that they knew the item would be used to ingest drugs, he said.

The new law would not require such proof. Instead, anybody who
reasonably should have known that what they sold, advertised or made
was going to be used to take illegal drugs would be in violation of
the law. A proprietor of a convenience store, for example, should
know that a pipe bearing a marijuana leaf is likely to be used for
exactly that.

Violators could face a fine of $500 or 60 days in jail. Repeat
offenders could see their businesses closed.

The ordinance also would bar minors from entering businesses,
including convenience stores and gas stations, that sell such
paraphernalia, unless they are with a parent or guardian.

Owners of specialty shops that sell things such as water pipes, small
canisters of nitrous oxide that can be inhaled and detoxification
solutions that can be taken before drug tests oppose the law.

They say their businesses are easy scapegoats for government
officials looking to appear tough on drugs, when their pipes are
actually sold for tobacco use and the nitrous oxide canisters are
used by bakers to dispense whipped cream.

It's a position Welch finds ridiculous.

"For these guys to say these items are not being sold to use drugs
kind of insults the intelligence of people who are looking at this
issue seriously," he said.

Leo Calzadilla, owner of Purple Haze Tobacco & Accessories in St.
Petersburg, said the proposed law is just as absurd.

By its logic, he said, a Home Depot cashier selling a can of spray
paint - which is sometimes inhaled to get high - could be breaking the law.

"Anything that is made by man or nature can be used improperly," he
said. "You can take an apple and make it into a pipe. So now we are
going to stop growing apples?"

Calzadilla, 44, says many of his customers are lovers of flavored
tobaccos, and that anyone who comes into his shop who appears
intoxicated or mentions use of illegal drugs is shown the door.

McCabe and Welch agree that the proposed law won't put a huge dent in
the drug problem, but it will limit easy access to paraphernalia.

"It sends the right message," Welch said, "that we are not going to
tolerate profiteering from the sale of items that facilitate drug use."

The County Commission will hear the task force recommendations
Thursday and will likely set a public hearing on the proposal.

If the law does take effect, Calzadilla said, he may take legal
action on the grounds that the ordinance invites selective enforcement.