TRINKETS OR TROUBLE?

Available at a convenience store near you, the 4-inch-long rose tubes
are an obscure novelty gift for a teenager's significant other or for
a child. And with the ends removed and the fake rose inside taken
out, the hollow glass tube can be used to smoke rocks of crack
cocaine. These "rose tubes," "love roses" or "stems" as they've been
coined, can be found behind the counter at many convenience stores.
They cost about $2. They are often bought along with a lighter and a
scouring pad, used as a filter. Several stores around the county
offer the rose tubes for sale. The pipes have been around for a
while. And, strictly speaking, they are legal. But since employees
are selling them from behind the counter, it gives them the illusion
of being black market wares.

Sheriff's spokesman Randy Jones said deputies have found crack
addicts in possession of the rose tubes.

"For every one rose we've seen in the pipes, we've seen 15 with
cocaine residue in it," Jones said.

While there is no doubt in his mind that they are drug paraphernalia,
Jones said that parents may not know what they are being used for.
But most store owners know why they are being bought, and it's not a
gift for your wife.

"It started out as novelty prizes and then crack addicts started
using them for drugs," a Wilco employee explained. Wilco didn't sell
them. Some stores' employees seemed reserved when they were
approached about the topic by the Times-News. Others just clammed up.

One convenience store owner on Webb Avenue said he didn't carry the
pipes, but, he assured a reporter, he'd be getting them in soon.
Several other employees at stores around the county said they didn't
want to talk about why they carried them.

One Burlington store said they didn't sell rose tubes anymore because
they were illegal. Instead, an employee quickly offered an
alternative, a glass pipe crudely camouflaged as a ball-point pen.

"It's the same thing - just take out the pen," the employee said. A
second Burlington store told a reporter they didn't sell them, but
later recanted. They kept them out of reach close to the cigarettes.
Many employees said time and time again that they are illegal. But
that's only if they are found in the vicinity of an illegal
substance, Jones noted.

Most of the employees who said they didn't sell them could - and
would - recommend another store in which to purchase the
paraphernalia. In Durham, members of the anti-drug coalition A New
East Durham have begun pressuring convenience store owners to stop
selling the rose tubes. In California and Michigan, the tubes are
classified as illegal drug paraphernalia.

Although no local organizations have jumped on the bandwagon,
Burlington Maj. Tim Flack said police are doing their part to keep an
eye out on those stores selling the supposed contraband.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.