FAIRFAX HIGH FIRED UP OVER UNWELCOME NEW NEIGHBOR

Store: A Smoke Shop Across From Campus Appears To Be Legal, But Protests
Are Planned

Fairfax High School students and their parents fumed when they spied the
new store that opened for business Friday in front of their campus.

Across Melrose Avenue from the school's main entrance was a 1960s-style
head shop stocked with water pipes, drug-themed T-shirts and cigarettes.

"This is disgusting. They're marketing to teens. We already have a drug
problem," said Kehiante McKinley, a 17-year-old senior who stared in
disbelief at the bright red "Smoke Shop" sign over the storefront. "Isn't
there a law that says something like that can't be within a certain
distance from a school."

There isn't, discovered school officials and parents who tried without
success to snuff out the shop before Friday's grand opening.

For two weeks they had watched with dismay as workers stocked the shop's
glass display cabinets and clothing racks and decorated its walls with such
decals as: "Did Someone Say Marijuana."

"We wanted to nip it in the bud, so to speak," said Heather Evans, parental
liaison at the 2,600-pupil high school. "But nobody could do anything."

Municipal officials said the operator of the new shop has the proper
business and tax permits.

The city attorney's office was investigating Friday whether the store also
had a tobacco retail permit--required through the city's 2-year-old Tobacco
Enforcement Program. The permit is part of a registration system for
retailers who sell tobacco products, and helps officials enforce a law that
requires cigarettes to be displayed on racks and shelves that are not
accessible to the public.

Cartons of cigarettes in the Smoke Shop were stored behind a counter at the
rear of the small shop. Proprietor Tigran Nersesyan was unapologetic about
his merchandise.

"We can't sell to people under 18. We have signs up," he said. "If you see
the sign, you won't come in."

But Nersesyan bristled when asked about the water pipes--many of which were
ornate and priced as high as $99.

"This is not drug paraphernalia. These are tobacco pipes," he said. He
terminated the conversation when questioned about the marijuana references
on wall decorations and on clothing displayed in the shop.

"I'm finished," he said.

A short time later, Evans delivered copies of petitions signed by 220
parents and Fairfax High teachers protesting the sale of drug paraphernalia
and apparel. Nersesyan directed her to the shop's back room for a private
meeting.

"I told him he's preying on our kids," Evans said later. "He said he never
knew there was a school across the street. I said he should move to a
different location. He said he's not moving unless we pay him to move. I
told him we don't even have money for books."

Evans said parents plan to picket Nersesyan's shop.

"Parents are upset and rightfully so. I'm a child of the '60s myself, but
it's not appropriate to have a head shop across the street from a school,"
said Fairfax High Principal Heather Daims as she surveyed her new neighbor
Friday from the campus.

City officials said they will be watching the new shop too.

No local law regulates such businesses near schools, although some cities
have zoning ordinances that restrict their location, said Nora Manzanilla,
administrative coordinator of the Los Angeles Tobacco Enforcement Program.
"The city attorney's office is very interested in this."

City Councilman Jack Weiss, who represents the Fairfax area, said officials
will study other cities' ordinances.

"The bottom line is, it's just plain wrong for somebody to open a store for
products dealing with tobacco, at best, and drug usage, at worst. It's very
disappointing to those of us in the community who want to see the areas
around our schools made more conducive to kids," Weiss said. "This is a
step in the wrong direction."

Tenth-graders Alexandra Luna and Jose Loza, both 16, agreed.

Luna said the shop is a slap at those who teach that smoking and drug use
is wrong. The school has its own share of troubles. You can smell marijuana
in the bathrooms between classes, Loza said.

"Students addicted to weed will go there," he added. "It shouldn't be in
front of our school--in front of our face."