Pubdate: Tue, 25 Feb 2003
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2003 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Cited: Criminal Justice Policy Foundation http://www.cjpf.org/
Cited: Drug Policy Alliance http://www.drugpolicy.org/
Author: Bryan A. Keogh, Chicago Tribune Washington Bureau
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/af.htm (Asset Forfeiture)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/ashcroft.htm (Ashcroft, John)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/walters.htm (Walters, John)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?179 (Nadelmann, Ethan)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Eric+Sterling (Sterling, Eric)

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."
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