MOVE TO BAN DRUG PIPES GOES UP IN SMOKE

A city councillor's push to have increasingly prevalent drug
paraphernalia removed from London variety stores failed at city hall Monday.

Coun. Stephen Orser urged council's community and protective services
committee to have staff report back on a bylaw that would ban, or at
least force shop owners to hide, pipes used for marijuana and crack cocaine.

The pipes, often at eye-level for children and prominently placed in
many London stores, promote drug use, Orser said. "My six-year-old
daughter thought it was a pipe for blowing bubbles," Orser said.

His call, though, went largely unheeded, with the committee voting to
take no action.

Deputy Mayor Tom Gosnell was particularly unimpressed with the idea,
saying he would support it "if I thought this might do some good."

Gosnell, echoing comments made by police Deputy Chief Ian Peer, noted
there's a criminal code charge for selling drug paraphernalia.

But the challenge, as Peer pointed out, is proving a store owner is
selling a glass pipe for drug use.

"If you come in and say 'I'll have one of those,' nothing illegal has
taken place," Peer said. "Now you have to prove it's for that illegal purpose."

Gosnell was uneasy with the idea of a bylaw forcing store owners to
move such items out of sight. "It's sending the wrong message out,"
Gosnell said, noting it essentially says "we know it's there, we just
want you to hide it.

"I don't see how a bylaw in any way helps that at all."

Coun. Harold Usher wondered whether such a bylaw would be culturally
insensitive. Some people, he said, may use the pipes to smoke legal
material common in their home countries.

A slightly frustrated Orser said his goal was simple: "I just want to
make it so children under 19 can't get at them."