DOLLAR STORE AGREES TO STOP SELLING CRACK PIPES

An Edmonds store owner promised Thursday to stop selling glass tubes
used by drug users as crack cocaine pipes after being pressured by the
community.

The store took them off their shelves Thursday afternoon, said John
Beheshti, owner of the Loonie House Market on Edmonds Street.

"Since this morning I asked my wife to put them away. We don't have
that many and we don't sell that many. There's no reason to keep
them," said Beheshti.

A number of residents, the RCMP and community groups asked the store
for more than a year to stop selling them. After one complaint, the
store removed them but they reappeared on the shelves again.

Vicki Kreuzer, a community school outreach worker, told more than 100
people attending Wednesday night's Edmonds town hall meeting the sale
of drug paraphernalia at local businesses should not tolerated. She
chose not to shop at the Loonie House Market until they removed the
pipes. Given the existing problem with prostitutes and the drug trade
in the area, Kreuzer recommended other residents also voice their concerns.

"Come in and speak to them, is what I ask everyone to do," she said.
"Let your voice be heard and if they can't move them that way, then
let's move our business somewhere else."

The round glass tubes in question are slightly wider than a soda straw
and four inches long. According to police, they frequently find these
tubes when they search individuals who smoke crack cocaine. Users of
the drug put the crack "rock" at one end of the tube, with steel wool
to hold it in place. The rock is then heated up with a lighter flame.
Smoke is drawn out through either a straw or surgical tube, say police.

They are sold under the name "Love Rose."

Corp. Marty Blais with the Edmonds community office said the tubes
appear to have a decorative purpose because they are sold with a tiny
rose inside. "The sole purpose of this is a crack pipe," he said.
"Selling these only fuels what's already out there."

On Thursday afternoon, a NewsLeader reporter went to the store and
asked to buy a pipe. The clerk directed the reporter to pipes commonly
used to smoke hashish. One of those pipes was purchased and then
returned later because "it was the wrong type." The clerk then
directed the reporter to the glass tubes. Three of them were purchased
for $5.

Later that day the reporter returned with Kreuzer. The clerk told the
reporter the tubes, which contain a small flower, are used for
decoration and are not pipes.

"I don't like you selling these pipes in my neighbourhood," said
Kreuzer to the clerk. "You promised you wouldn't sell these and that
was more than a year ago.

"There are drug-addicted people in the community and they don't need
your help to support their weakness and illness. There are other
community agencies helping them get back on their feet and clean up
and you're helping them support their addiction.

"Get rid of the pipes."

The clerk said the Burnaby RCMP had been in the store and said it was
OK to sell the glass tubes. Corp. Blais later said he had asked the
store "not to sell them."

Beheshti said the glass tubes would be sent back to the company the
store bought them from. But he questioned if it would have any effect
on the Edmonds area drug problem, where crack cocaine is the drug of
choice.

"If we don't sell them they'll find other things to use for their
drugs," he said. "The community has to do something else, find the
drug dealers."