ACTIVISTS FIGHT TO KEEP 'BLUNT WRAPS' OFF SHELVES

Rolling Papers Are Drug Paraphernalia, They Say

Bruce Cameron never looked twice at the cognac- and
strawberry-flavored rolling papers at corner store counters near his
northwest Milwaukee home.

But after attending a community meeting at his local police station
nearly a year ago, the Enderis Park homeowner decided that the sheets
of pressed tobacco pulp, commonly called "blunt wraps," deserved his
attention.

"I think the world's divided into those who know what these products
are and those who don't," said Cameron, executive director of the
Enderis Park Neighborhood Association.

Now he believes the wrapping papers are drug paraphernalia used to
smoke marijuana and other illegal drugs, and he's part of a growing
movement to have the products removed from gas stations and
convenience stores across the city.

The products are marketed as roll-your-own cigar papers, and are legal
because of the city paraphernalia law's exemption for tobacco products.

But on March 29, that exemption was challenged when, at Cameron's
urging, an Enderis Park candy store owner became the first proprietor
prosecuted for selling blunt wraps to adults.

The case went to municipal court after Cameron told the city
attorney's office that Johnny Little, the store's owner, sold no loose
tobacco alongside the wraps and had admitted he knew the wraps were
used to roll marijuana.

Little was acquitted on a technicality - a store employee sold the
blunt wrap, but police cited Little - and he narrowly avoided paying a
$1,000 fine, said Adam Stephens, the assistant city attorney who
argued the case.

But Judge Valarie Hill's strongly worded ruling opened the door for
future prosecutions.

"Clearly a blunt wrapper is drug paraphernalia," Hill said, according
to court documents.

Little argued he had no reason to assume buyers use the product to
smoke an illegal substance. Hill called his defense "a bald-faced lie."

"There is no way in the world that I believe that you didn't have a
clue about what a blunt wrapper was until you went and did research,"
Hill told Little. "You have absolutely no credibility here
whatsoever."

Cameron said in the past year of lobbying stores in his neighborhood
to stop selling blunt wraps, he's heard that same excuse many times.
He finds it especially suspect when the wraps are sold in close
proximity to household products associated with smoking crack cocaine,
such as individually packaged Brillo pads or miniature "love roses"
sold in small glass tubes.

Still, Cameron said he has persuaded owners at a half-dozen Enderis
Park stores to pledge to take products that could be used to prepare
or ingest illegal drugs off their shelves. Members of the Sherman Park
Community Association have circulated the same good-faith agreement,
and a total of 18 Milwaukee stores have signed on.

M.Sajan, the owner of a northwest Milwaukee BP station, said that
while the neighborhood activists' intentions are admirable, he and his
colleagues have little financial incentive to join their campaign. He
has stopped selling blunt wraps, but he's unsure how much longer he
can allow nearby competitors to take his former patrons.

"I thought if I stop, other people would stop, and that would reduce
the amount of drugs," Sajan said. "You want to be a good neighbor, but
you still want to pay the mortgage."

He said sales of beverages and cigarettes also have gone down since he
stopped selling the papers, as blunt wrap buyers are "the guys with
the money."

Rather than an indication of disposable income, Enderis Park and
Sherman Park activists said blunt wrap transactions are closely
connected to loitering, open-air drug use and cruising. And the city
ordinance, which was revised in April 2006 to extend the paraphernalia
sales and possession prohibition to adults 18 and older, is a tool to
address these problems, they said.

Assistant City Attorney Vince Bobot agreed.

"Our goal is not to harass honest merchants," he said. "Our goal is to
stop facilitating illegal drug use, which is decreasing quality of
life in Milwaukee."