DAYTONA TRIES TO QUASH SALES OF 'TOBACCO' PIPES

DAYTONA BEACH -- Danny Black of Shoreham, N.Y., pressed his nose to
the glass window of Sportwear USA, ogling the colorful array of glass
pipes -- some 2 feet tall -- billed for tobacco only. But few are
fooled.

"It's for marijuana, man," he said. "Getting high. I don't do cigarettes."

Black is uncommonly candid about his intentions. The 19-year-old
college sophomore on Christmas break said he wants to inhale, get
high and then get the munchies.

Black wanted to get an exotic tobacco pipe fast. Daytona Beach City
Commission recently took a hard line on the pipes. They have banned
the display and sale of them, and they threaten fines that could run
from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars.

It's part of the commission's effort to clean up the city's image of
a party-till-you-puke town.

"These things are drug paraphernalia, and there's no question about
that," said Mayor Bud Asher. "We're taking a stand to do our best to
keep our young people drug-free."

A similar tactic is being used on the city's adult strip clubs and
video stores, with many thousands of dollars in potential fines
accumulating. But the effectiveness remains to be seen, as the
business owners are fighting the city in court.

Asher said the new ordinance relies on an existing Florida statute
that bans drug paraphernalia.

The statute specifically bans: "Objects used, intended for use, or
designed for use in ingesting, inhaling, or otherwise introducing
cannabis (*marijuana) into the human body."

"Bongs" -- slang for any container used to smoke marijuana, filtering
the smoke through water -- are outlawed in the same state law.

Not so fast. There's a loophole.

If you use only tobacco in the items, or even use them as
paperweights, they're perfectly legal, said Sgt. Al Tolley of the
Daytona Beach Police Department.

It's what goes in there, or your intent, that's at issue.

All the stores the Sentinel found selling the pipes have signs
specifically stating that the objects are for use with tobacco.

You walk into the stores and you'll see big signs that declare the
items are for use in tobacco only.

But undercutting that declaration is the fact that many of the pipes
are individually marked with the numbers "4:20"-- slang for getting
high.

Other communities across the nation are taking similar hard lines.
Earlier this month, the city of Chicago banned the sale of flavored
cigarette paper that could be used to hide the smell of marijuana.

This summer the state of Michigan along with the city of Chicago
banned the sale of 4-inch glass pipes that can be used as crack pipes
- -- deeming them drug paraphernalia.

In Milwaukee -- while not banning the items -- district attorney
asked merchants to sign good-faith agreements not to sell the items,
saying proving intent would be too difficult.

Asher said his city is ready to fight -- and fight hard.

"I'm no goodie-two-shoes, but this is something we don't need or want
in Daytona Beach."