SHERIFF: LEGALIZING PARAPHERNALIA NOT LIKELY TO CHANGE ENFORCEMENT EFFORt

VICTORVILLE --Despite a recent appellate court decision making marijuana
smoking paraphernalia legal to possess, representatives of San Bernardino
County Sheriff Gary Penrod said narcotics arrests will proceed as usual,
including confiscation of the equipment.

"State law is very confusing when dealing with marijuana from our
perspective," said San Bernardino County Sheriff's Detective Robbie Ciolli
of the Sheriff's Marijuana Eradication Team.

If a pipe, bong or smoking device is confiscated in an arrest and
discovered to have resin or marijuana in it, someone can be arrested,
Ciolli said.

"While you can still buy pipes over the counter legally, everything depends
on what is in the pipe should you be detained on a marijuana charge,"
Ciolli said.

For some, the move just adds another wrinkle in the state's confusing
treatment of marijuana offenses and legislation.

"I've had my pipes, cleaning instruments, bongs all confiscated before,"
said Wayne Hobbes, 33, of Hesperia. "I've never been charged with a crime
- -- this is just harassment."

Hobbes, a quadriplegic who has a doctor's prescription for medicinal
marijuana, said he believes law enforcement is not on the same page as the law.

"We are having a rough time with law enforcement," Hobbes said. "It's tough
to go through litigation with law enforcement. It's expensive and hard and
I wish the law could get a straight standard to work from."

A California appellate court ruled earlier this month that the possession
of marijuana smoking pipes is legal under California law, rescinding a
legal precedent that made the possession of such devices illegal.

The appeal involved a Riverside County juvenile who was sentenced to five
to 10 days in Juvenile Hall after county probation officers searched his
bedroom in November 2001, uncovering two marijuana bongs.

While prosecutors argued that the devices were illegal under state laws
barring possession of bongs for sale, as well as requiring businesses that
sell them to exclude sales to minors, the three-judge appellate panel ruled
against them.

Citing a 1975 state law, the panel said that possession of a device for
smoking marijuana was deliberately decriminalized.

"The Legislature did not intend this crime to swallow up the possession of
a device for smoking marijuana," Justice Betty Ann Richli wrote in the
decision.

While the state approved the prescription of the drug by physician in 1996
when Proposition 215 was approved, the federal government still considers
the drug a dangerous so-called Schedule One narcotic -- cracking down on
growers and users alike.

The decision will probably have little influence on the prosecution of
cases, said San Bernardino County Deputy District Attorney Ken Smith.

Marijuana pipes and smoking devices are already in a lesser legal category
from other drug paraphernalia, such as methamphetamine or crack, Smith
said, which is why the devices can still be sold over the counter.

"I don't imagine this ruling would change much relating to marijuana cases
we file," Smith said.

The ruling comes after the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency conducted a series
of raids across the country on Feb. 24, raiding more than 100 businesses
and homes that were linked to the sale of bongs and pipes, charging 50
people with trafficking in drug paraphernalia.

The appeal panels' decision does not affect federal cases, only instances
where state law is violated.