MUNICIPALITIES CRACKING DOWN ON DRUG PARAPHERNALIA SALES

The bell is tolling for bongs in the Lower Mainland.

Langley City will soon require stores to submit drug-paraphernalia
buyer information to police, while Surrey bylaw officers are
recommending the city ban the sale of pipes, crack pipes and water
bongs altogether.

Under Langley's soon-to-be-passed bylaw, the city will prohibit the
sale of paraphernalia to anyone under the age of 19 and require the
five local stores selling such products to record and report all
purchases to the RCMP. New businesses will be banned from selling the
products altogether.

Langley Township is looking at similar legislation.

When it comes time for existing stores to renew their business
licences, Mayor Peter Fassbender promises they will "pay through the
nose" if the paraphernalia is still on the shelves.

He acknowledged that paraphernalia is legal, but noted drugs are not.

"Drugs are illegal. We don't have to assist that [illegality] by
having it right in [consumers'] faces," he said.

As for the privacy concerns about having one's personal information
recorded and sent to police on the day of what is a legal sale,
Fassbender said it would help police identify the chronic core of
drug-addicted offenders who commit the majority of crimes in his
community. Stores that don't submit the information will face fines
of between $200 and $10,000.

John Shertsone, Surrey's manager of bylaws and licensing, says staff
are forwarding a report to council that would recommend prohibiting all sales.

New Westminster has already enacted such a law.

Surrey's proposed bylaw would restrict sales to licensed pharmacies
where people with medical needs could purchase syringes, he said.

Vancouver's bylaw requires pipes, bongs and the like be invisible
from the street, not displayed in store windows and not sold to those
19 or older.