AGENCIES EYE DRUG PARAPHERNALIA

Stings Target Sales In 'Head Shops' On Campus Nationwide

MORGANTOWN -- Each variety shop in Morgantown has its own atmosphere and
its own flavor, whether it's the incense-filled Cool Ridge or the
rock-heavy hipster palace called the Den.

Among the T-shirts, jewelry, bobble head dolls, CDs, beer and school
supplies available in at least one of the two are items federal authorities
are particularly interested in: pipes and bongs used to smoke marijuana.

These businesses are known as head shops, and such stores across the
country recently have been investigated and shut down by the Drug
Enforcement Administration and the U.S. attorney's office for selling pipes
and drug paraphernalia.

"We get just about everyone in here," said Frank Grimes, manager of the
Den. He said his store can sell the pipes because they have a license to
sell them for tobacco use only. He isn't worried about the recent raids
that shut down head shops in the Pittsburgh area.

The cooperative effort between the two federal departments, called
Operation Pipe Dreams and Headhunter, led to a sting that resulted in the
indictments of 50 people. Most were charged with trafficking in illegal
drug paraphernalia.

The raids led to more than 20 businesses -- including stores in Pittsburgh
- -- and 11 Internet sites being shut down. No West Virginia store has been
targeted.

"This illegal billion-dollar industry will no longer be ignored by law
enforcement," Attorney General John Ashcroft said in a news release earlier
this year after the Pennsylvania arrests.

"To make a billion dollars, you have to sell a lot of drug paraphernalia,"
said Mary Beth Buchanan, who is leading the investigation with the DEA in
the western Pennsylvania district.

The businesses investigated by the federal authorities were selling
user-friendly (pipes, bongs, marijuana pipes, roach clips and other items)
and dealer-friendly items (miniature scales and substances for "cutting" or
diluting raw narcotics to maximize profits for drug sales).

In the basement floor of Cool Ridge, there is a much bigger selection of
pipes and bongs than what you can find at the Den. The bottom floor, albeit
small, is nothing but pipes and bongs for sale. They wrap around the walls
and behind the counter. There also is a glass case of smaller more portable
pipes.

Some of the pipes look like ordinary highlighters. Displayed prominently on
the glass blocking some of the view of the pipes is a piece of paper with
the words: Drug Paraphernalia License written across it. Buchanan said no
such license exists on the federal level.

Calls to the owner of Cool Ridge were not returned.

The pipes and bongs sold at the Den are not big moneymakers, Grimes said.
Those sales are dwarfed by the bigger sales they get from their CDs or
other items.

"Saying we sell pipes is like saying we sell suntan lotion," Grimes said.
"We're not even close to what those stores are. Our main things are the
music and cigarettes."

Buchanan said any shop selling drug paraphernalia is subject to prosecution.

"If they are selling items after these operations, they are doing so at
their own peril," Buchanan said.

The busts took place all across the nation, and more than 2,000 law
enforcement officials took part in these busts.

"Any city in the country with a college population, if the shops exist then
they could be targets," Buchanan said.