LAWMEN TARGET HEAD SHOP

McDonald County Uses Newly Revised Law

JANE, Mo. - Law enforcement officers in McDonald County used a revised
state law Wednesday in confiscating alleged drug paraphernalia being sold
at a head shop south of Jane on U.S. Highway 71. Steve Geeding, county
prosecutor, said he will charge the store's owner with possession of drug
paraphernalia with intent to distribute.

Authorities declined to identify the store owner by name. He has not been
taken into custody but is expected to be summoned into court in the next 30
days.

Sheriff Rob Evenson said deputies with his department seized four large
boxes of paraphernalia from A Head of Our Time, a head shop recently opened
in the old Chick's Service Station.

Evenson said the case stems from a state law that was revised during the
2001 legislative session. The new law went into effect Aug. 28.

"It makes it much harder to sell drug paraphernalia, such as pipes, water
pipes and rolling papers," he said.

To get a conviction on such a charge under the previous law, Evenson said,
investigators had to prove that the paraphernalia had been used in
connection with drugs.

"It used to be we had to find residue (of illegal drugs)," he said. "Now,
we only have to find that a reasonable person would know that it is going
to be used for ingesting illegal drugs."

Ron Doerge, Newton County sheriff and head of the Southwest Missouri Drug
Task Force, said the new law will help in the prosecution of individuals
who are profiting from the use of drugs.

"Everybody knows what these things are being used for," he said. "But, the
problem we've had with these head shops is that we had to prove how their
products were being used when everybody knows the intent."

Geeding said he expects that will lead to more prosecutions of people who
sell drug paraphernalia.

"We're not trying to make new law," he said. "We're just trying to enforce
the existing law. Any reasonable person should have known that this was
going to be used to ingest illegal drugs."