LAW AIMS TO CURB PARAPHERNALIA

Although a recent amendment to Oklahoma's drug laws aims to tighten the
restrictions on marijuana paraphernalia, some Tahlequah residents feel
lawmakers might as well just be blowing smoke.

House Bill 1220, passed by the Senate April 22 and the House of
Representatives May 6, amends the state's list of illegal drug
paraphernalia to include "all hidden or novelty pipes," and "any pipe that
has a tobacco bowl or chamber of less than one-half inch in diameter in
which there is an detectable residue of any controlled dangerous substance
as defined in this section or any other substances not legal for possession
or use."

The law pertains to not only the actions of the owner of such a pipe, but
also his or her intent to either use it - or sell it to someone who intends
to use it - to smoke marijuana.

The law states, "The innocence of an owner, or of anyone in control of the
object, as to a direct violation of this act shall not prevent a finding
that the object is intended for use, or fashioned specifically for use, as
drug paraphernalia."

The new act puts even more pressure on novelty shops selling pipes, which -
ostensibly used to smoke tobacco - can make great pot pipes as well.

"I had a gut feeling that was coming," said Brandon Hamilton, who, after
eight years of operating a Tahlequah novelty store called Plumb Krazy,
closed his doors earlier this year. "The fact of the matter is, in eight
years, I never had any trouble, but I was getting gray hairs from worrying,
and I wasn't even doing anything illegal."

Hamilton said so many regulations - from the local level on up to federal
laws - pertain to the sale of smoking items, just trying to stay within the
law made running a novelty store a high-pressure career.

"For example, if a pipe crossed the state line, it was a federal offense;
everything had to come from in-state to be legal," said Hamilton, who's
also a professional photographer. "If the feds had come in, all the
pictures of bands I had in there, all the pictures of my brother riding
bulls, my Harley Davidson, everything I had in there could've been taken."

Katherine Smith of Tahlequah has some misgivings about a law that contains
language as broad as "novelty."

"What's a novelty pipe? Something novel?" she asked. "I would really worry
about the implications for craftsmen who make pipes, and I would say the
same would apply to glassblowers as well."

Smith said she owns several pipes made by Indian pipemakers that could
easily be construed as "novelty" pipes or "paraphernalia" as defined by the
state of Oklahoma.

"Pipes are very, very important to American Indian traditions," she said.
"I'd hate to see any regulations put on artisans; I don't think that's what
a democratic government was intended to be used for - to put limitations on
artists."

State Rep. Jim Wilson of Tahlequah said the recently-passed legislation
probably won't change the enforcement of the existing state drug laws much,
but it does give legislators a chance - in this campaign year - to claim
they took a stand against drugs, precluding any accusations that they might
be "soft on crime."

"It was something you couldn't very well vote against, even though there
wasn't much point in it; I think it passed the House unanimously," said
Wilson, who said he received only one phone from an opponent of the bill
before it was voted on. "They haven't outlawed Zig-zag [cigarette rolling]
papers, so this really didn't make any sense."

Mark D'Aquilla of Tahlequah agrees. Whether it's Zig-zag papers, pipes, or
pages from the Bible, people are going to find ways to smoke pot. All the
new legislation does, D'Aquilla said, is cut the state out of any
opportunity to make tax dollars from the sale of paraphernalia.

"I've seen people smoke pot rolled up in pages from the Gideons' Bible;
I've seen people smoke pot through carrots and apples with holes bored in
them; if someone [a cop, for example] comes along, they can just eat the
apple," said D'Aquilla. "If the state doesn't want to make any tax revenue
off the sale of pipes, fine - but I'd like to see them ban carrots, and I'd
like to see them ban Gideons' Bibles from Motel 6."