BUST SPOOKS SHOPS SELLING SMOKING GEAR

Some owners say they'll close after federal crackdown on retailers of items
that can be for drug use.

DIAMOND BAR -- A federal crackdown on merchants of smoking materials that
authorities maintain can be used for illegal drug use has some Inland
Valley smoke shop owners so frightened they plan to get out of the business.

A Diamond Bar man was among 50 people indicted nationwide after the Feb. 24
sweep, which shuttered shops on the ground and on the Internet. Dubbed
Operation Pipe Dreams and Operation Headhunter, the investigation was run
by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force and involved several
federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

Ryan Vaughn Struble, 30, had a store called Headcase in Rancho Cucamonga.
On the Internet he operated a site called www.aheadcase.com, which touted
itself as being the world's largest online supplier of water and hand
pipes, hookahs, bongs, snuff tools, books and scales, among other items.
Because some of his business was Internet-based, his case is being handled
in the Western District Court of Pennsylvania.

Now Web surfers who try to log on to his site find a notice from the Drug
Enforcement Agency. Struble's Web site has been restrained as property
allegedly used in the commission of a crime. Whether it will be permanently
shut down depends on the outcome of the criminal case against him.

Struble is accused of selling and transporting drug paraphernalia, and also
accused of being one of 17 people to operate a national distribution
company specializing in drug paraphernalia. Struble deferred all comment to
his attorney.

Eric Chase, owner of the Studio City-based Chase Law Group, said Struble is
one of many shop owners, glassblowers and others thrown into a panic by the
crackdown. The laws used to charge Struble and others may have been on the
books for a long time, but enforcement has been rare because it requires
knowledge on the part of the merchant he is unlikely to possess, Chase said.

"It's trying to outlaw items by their intent as opposed to their shape and
how they're made," Chase said. "Defining it by intent is just impossible.
How are they supposed to divine a person's intent when they buy an item?
How are they to know if they are using it for tobacco or for marijuana?"

Federal officials dispute the difficulty of guessing intent when it comes
to paraphernalia sales.

"I think most people can tell the difference between a pipe that's a
tobacco pipe and one used for crack or marijuana," DEA spokeswoman Tara
DeGarmo said. "There's a very clear difference. It is illegal to have drug
paraphernalia, to sell drug paraphernalia."

At least one longtime Inland Valley smoke shop will close as a result of
the crackdown. The owner of Good Vibes Glass on Foothill Boulevard in
Rancho Cucamonga is getting rid of merchandise that investigators deem
questionable and will find a new identity.

Good Vibes' manager and owner declined comment. Other smoke shop owners in
Claremont, Upland, Ontario and Rancho Cucamonga also declined comment or
did not respond to numerous requests for comment this week. Several
expressed fear of speaking without knowing if more sweeps were planned.

Chase said the indictments are "trying to scare people" out of the
business, a point of view Assistant U.S. Atty. Paul Brysh, based in
Pittsburg, doesn't dispute.

"One of the legitimate purposes of criminal prosecutions is deterrent,"
Brysh said. "We would hope that in this area our prosecutions would have a
deterrent effect."

Brysh said the law exempts items sold, imported and exported that have
traditionally been used for tobacco only. The statute requires that law
enforcement officers prove the items are primarily used for illegal drugs.
Merchants who stock products that primarily are used for illegal drugs were
targeted in the sting, he said.

"We would not have brought the cases if we were not prepared to prove in
court" that the items were designed and sold primarily for drug use, he said.

Federal law calls for a maximum sentence of three years in prison, a fine
of $250,000, or both for each count.