TRIAL CENTRES ON 'VAGUE' DRUG LAWS

If Mike Spindloe is going to be hauled into court for selling drug
paraphernalia, then so should the owners of hardware stores, convenience
stores and tobacco shops, Spindloe's lawyer suggested Monday.

During the first day of Spindloe's provincial court trial on charges of
selling instruments for illicit drug use, Alan Young introduced as evidence
several pipes, rolling papers and "alligator" clips purchased at stores
throughout the city.

Young said the material was produced to show how vague the law governing
drug paraphernalia is. Spindloe, owner of the Vinyl Exchange on Second
Avenue North, was charged after a police raid on the store about a year ago.

He is the second Saskatoon merchant to be charged under the controversial
law, which is based on a private member's bill introduced in 1987 by Tory
MP and former police officer Bob Horner.

Spindloe was also accused of selling literature promoting illicit drug use,
but that charge was dropped last month.

"It's incumbent on Parliament to very clearly tell us what is prohibited
and what is not," Young, an Osgoode Hall law professor, told reporters.

"I was trying to demonstrate that there isn't a very clear line. We need to
know what that line is."

Seven boxes of materials taken from the Vinyl Exchange were introduced as
evidence by prosecutor Jim Plemel. They contained more than 100 pipes,
small scales, small metal clips, glass vials, rolling paper, hemp and
cannabis cookbooks and other books and magazines. The material has a retail
value of between $6,000 and $8,000, says Spindloe.

Const. Mike Robinson, the city police officer who oversaw the raid, told
court he saw the material while visiting the store on another matter. On
May 15, 1997, Robinson and four other officers executed a search warrant on
the Vinyl Exchange.

Robinson identified several stylized plastic pipes as "bongs," special
pipes used by marijuana smokers to maximum their pleasure. He said the
small metal clips were "roach clips" which are used by smokers when a
marijuana cigarette becomes too short to safely handle. He said the scales
seized are used to weigh drugs.

During cross-examination, Young accused Robinson of conducting an
"indiscriminate" search for anything remotely related to illegal drug use.
He said Robinson ordered the seizure of the magazines and books even though
an Ontario judge has ruled that the law prohibiting the sale of literature
on illegal drug use is unconstitutional.

Moreover, Robinson took the books and magazines without reading them first,
said Young, who stressed the Vinyl Exchange is primarily a music store.
Young said many of the items taken from the store were not designed
exclusively for illegal drug use.

"The purchaser of this item could use it for drugs," Young said of a small
glass vial.

"But there's nothing implicit in it's design that makes suitable for
illegal drug use."

As well, Young said there were technical deficiencies in the search
warrant, including the listing of a wrong address for the store.

RCMP Const. Grant Froyland, a member of the city's integrated drug unit,
said the pipes taken from the Vinyl Exchange are designed specifically for
illegal drug use. For example, water is used in a "bong" pipe to cool the
smoke produced by burning marijuana and boost the drug's potency, said
Froyland.