WEEDING OUT 'HEAD SHOPS'

Aheadcase.com bills itself as the "largest smoke shop in the world,"
offering assorted pipes, hookas, bongs, snuff tools, books, scales and
other products. It is one of a plethora of so-called "head shops"
selling drug-related merchandise over the Internet.

The owners of Aheadcase.com, which boasts two Southern California
retail locations in addition to its Web site, were busted by federal
authorities. It was part of a nationwide sweep that resulted in
indictments of 50 individuals on charges of trafficking in illegal
drug paraphernalia.

Head shops around the country have operated over the years with
seeming impunity, despite their clear violation of federal drug laws.
And it might have remained that way were it not for the recent
proliferation of on-line head shops like Aheadcase.com.

"With the advent of the Internet," Attorney General John Ashcroft
said, "the illegal drug paraphernalia industry has exploded." Inasmuch
as the Internet enables head shops to infiltrate homes across America,
affords them access to Web-surfing young adults and children, the
"illegal billion-dollar business will no longer be ignored by law
enforcement," Ashcroft added.

It's not clear how the individuals arrested in Operation Pipe Dreams
and Operation Headhunter will respond to the federal charges.
Convictions could cost the defendants a maximum of three years in
prison, a $250,000 fine, or both, for each count.

Some defendants, no doubt, will claim their products were intended for
"tobacco use" only. And they will point to notices to that effect on
their Web sites or to signs posted in their retail shops. But as U.S.
Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan said, "No one would possibly use these
items for smoking tobacco."

Indeed, federal law defines drug paraphernalia as products that are
primarily intended or designed to be used in ingesting, inhaling or
otherwise using controlled substances. That includes such items as
miniature scales, substances for "cutting" or diluting raw narcotics,
bongs, marijuana pipes and roach clips.

The owners of on-line and retail head shops are no different, said
John Brown, the Drug Enforcement Administration's acting
administrator, than drug dealers themselves.

Some advocacy groups quarrel with that comparison. They suggest the
Justice Department is squandering resources by cracking down on the
drug paraphernalia industry.

But it hardly is a waste of tax dollars for the government to bring to
justice multimillion-dollar criminal enterprises that brazenly flout
federal law - drug law or any other law for that matter.