U.S. HAULS IN DEALERS OF BONGS, ROACH CLIPS

Operation Pipe Dreams Hits Net Sellers

WASHINGTON -- Signaling the start of a new front in the campaign against
illegal drugs, federal authorities charged 55 people Monday with
trafficking in drug paraphernalia in an investigation that focused on those
who advertise and sell such items on the Internet.

Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, standing with a phalanx of other law-enforcement
officials who participated in the nationwide investigation, said that by
targeting major paraphernalia distributors the government was dealing the
drug trade a sharp blow.

The investigation -- a two-pronged effort known as Operation Pipe Dreams
and Operation Headhunter--led to raids Monday in which officials
confiscated thousands of tons of drug paraphernalia and tens of millions of
dollars, and made numerous arrests, said Mary Beth Buchanan, the U.S.
attorney in Pittsburgh whose office is coordinating the investigation with
the Drug Enforcement Administration.

"It is an extremely profitable, illegal business," Buchanan said.

But some critics said an investigation targeting such items as bongs and
roach clips showed little more than political grandstanding, misplaced
priorities and a waste of federal resources, particularly as the United
States is waging a more pressing war against terrorism.

"At a time of intense alert regarding the terrorist threat, this is a
pretty pathetic waste of criminal justice resources," said Eric Sterling,
president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, a liberal think tank.
"Is this a high priority when criminal justice resources are stretched so
thinly?"

Justice Department officials defended the drug paraphernalia investigation.

"It's not a waste of resources. It's still against the law," said Drew
Wade, a department spokesman. "The federal government has the right and
obligation to enforce federal laws."

The investigation targeted distributors and shops selling such items as
marijuana pipes, bongs and miniature scales, focusing on their sale over
the Internet and by direct mail.

Officials said the growth of the Internet has opened a major avenue for the
sale of drug paraphernalia, as it has for other illegal items, from child
pornography to drugs obtained without prescription.

"With the advent of the Internet, the illegal drug paraphernalia industry
has exploded," Ashcroft said.

Federal authorities said they were obtaining court orders to shut down 11
Internet sites that market drug paraphernalia, and that they would direct
visitors to those sites to a Drug Enforcement Administration Web site that
states why the site was taken offline.

Ashcroft said drug paraphernalia distributors often target children in
their marketing schemes, using cartoon characters and other gimmicks to
entice young buyers. The Internet's ability to reach inside homes makes
such schemes "even more frightening," the attorney general said.

Officials emphasized that some of the items were designed to appeal to
youth, such as marijuana pipes disguised as common objects such as
highlighter markers, lipstick and flashlights. To support her contention
that these pipes are marketed to teenagers, Buchanan said these are the
types of items high school principals have been confiscating.

Although drug paraphernalia are widely available in tobacco stores,
so-called head shops and record stores, they are illegal to sell or possess
in the U.S. According to federal law, drug paraphernalia are defined as
anything primarily intended to be used in the processing, distribution or
consumption of a controlled substance.

The 55 people charged face penalties of up to 3 years in prison and fines
of up to $250,000. Ashcroft also said federal authorities would confiscate
any property or equipment used in the manufacturing of drug paraphernalia.

Federal indictments were brought against 27 people in Pittsburgh, nine in
Des Moines and 19 others elsewhere in the U.S.

Besides the DEA and six U.S. attorneys, the investigation involved the U.S.
Marshals Service, the Secret Service, the Customs Service and the Postal
Inspection Service.

While most of the indictments were against companies that authorities said
were involved in large-scale manufacturing and distribution of drug
paraphernalia, some involved local head shops that sell pipes and bongs
directly to consumers.

Describing marijuana as the drug that teenagers are most at risk to abuse,
John Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said
eliminating the drug paraphernalia market was as important as treatment and
prevention in curbing drug use among young people.

Law-enforcement officials also criticized distributors of drug
paraphernalia for their roles in the illegal drug trade and said they
shared responsibility for the violence it accompanies.

"People selling drug paraphernalia are, in essence, no different than drug
dealers," said John Brown, acting administrator of the DEA. "They are as
much a part of drug trafficking as silencers are a part of criminal homicide."

But Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a
group opposed to the government's anti-drug effort, questioned the
assertion that cracking down on the drug paraphernalia industry would make
high school students less likely to smoke marijuana.

"It seems like an absurd diversion and waste of resources," Nadelmann said.
"I think what it represents is an increasing politicization of the war on
drugs."