DRUG ABUSERS USING GLASS ROSE STEMS

Tiny red roses encased in long glass stems -- you see them displayed for
sale on many store counters. But some who buy them are not interested in
the flower, police say. Instead, they want the glass stem, which makes a
good "pipe" for smoking illegal drugs, officers say.

In a case which occurred here on Jan. 31, a Cookeville Police officer
arrested a woman on drug charges and tacked on a paraphernalia charge based
on the fact that the woman allegedly went into a convenience store and
bought a glass stem rose and had it in her possession at the time of arrest.

Angela Ann Wilson, 38, of Little Brook Road, Cookeville, was charged with
possession of crack cocaine for resale and possession of drug paraphernalia
in the case, according to a report by Officer Chase Mathis.

Officer Mathis said it began that evening when he noticed a white Chevrolet
pickup leaving "a suspected drug house."

He said he had watched as a "white female wearing all black got into the
passenger side of the truck" and he watched as the truck pulled into a
convenience store on S. Willow Ave.

The woman got out of the truck and went into the store. When she came out
and started back to the truck, Officer Mathis approached her, he said.

"I advised her that I would like to talk to her, but that she was free to
leave at any time," the officer's report says.

"She stated that she understood and wanted to know what I wanted. When
asked where she had been, she stated 'John's' house and that she paid him
some money she owed him."

Officer Mathis then asked the woman if she had bought a "glass rose stem"
in the convenience store.

Allegedly, she replied that she had not bought one of the roses.

"She then advised me she was leaving, and I went into the store where the
clerk advised me that she did buy a glass rose stem," the officer's report
says.

The glass rose stems are "commonly used to smoke crack cocaine," the report
says.

A very short time later, Officer Mathis again spotted the woman he had
questioned, this time at a pay phone at 12th and Willow.

"As I approached her, I told her I knew she had bought a rose stem at that
store," the report says. "She stated she didn't buy one and started
emptying her pockets voluntarily."

Allegedly, the woman pulled out of her pocket a plastic bag containing
three smaller "baggies," each containing "an off-white rock-like substance
believed to be crack cocaine," the report says.

Officer Mathis then handcuffed the woman and upon searching her, allegedly
found a glass rose stem.

The officer allegedly also found a store receipt for a "4-pack cleansing
scrubbers (commonly used as the filler for the pipe)," the report says.

The woman had $67 in cash, and the officer seized that in connection with
the charges he was about to file against her.

Allegedly, she confessed to buying the crack cocaine "from the residence
that I saw her leave," the report says.

She was taken to the Putnam jail and booked for possession for resale and
for possession of paraphernalia, the glass pipe.

A state law passed some years ago by the late Senator Tommy Burks outlawed
the sale of drug paraphernalia in what was known then as "head shops,"
stores that sold pipes and gongs and other items used by drug abusers.

But apparently, some common items sold today in various kinds of stores can
be turned into drug paraphernalia and do not come under that law.