Pubdate: Tue, 27 Jan 2009
Source: San Diego City Beat (CA)
Copyright: 2009 San Diego City Beat
Contact:  http://www.sdcitybeat.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2764
Author: David Silva
Cited: Marijuana Policy Project http://www.mpp.org/
Referenced: California Health and Safety Code 11364.7 
http://law.onecle.com/california/health/11364.7.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Marijuana - California)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/bongs
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?228 (Paraphernalia)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Marijuana+Policy+Project

AUTHORITIES SMOKE OUT WATER BONGS

Have you ever looked at California's bong law? Have you ever really 
looked at it?

Selling glass pipes and water bongs is perfectly legal in the state, 
so long as their intended use is for smoking tobacco and not pot. 
That difference in intent may seem like a fine line, but it can mean 
the difference between making a buck and being totally screwed. Just 
ask the owners of the seven East County smoke shops whose businesses 
were raided last week by police and sheriff's deputies.

Acting at the behest of San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie 
Dumanis, authorities on Jan. 21 served search warrants at shops in El 
Cajon, La Mesa and Santee. They seized an estimated 15,000 glass 
pipes, bongs and other items as part of an investigation into whether 
the owners violated the state's drug-paraphernalia laws.

None of the owners could be reached for comment by deadline, but an 
employee at one of the shops raided in El Cajon says authorities have 
it all wrong.

The DA's office "sent us a letter saying water pipes were illegal and 
that we needed to take them down, but they're not illegal," she says, 
declining to give her name. "We called the DA's office about that, 
but they never called us back. Then police came in and said, 'You 
didn't take the water pipes down, so we're seizing them.' We lost 
about $50,000 in merchandise."

Asked to comment on the employee's claim that the seized items were 
legal under state law, El Cajon Police Lt. Steve Shakowski cited 
California Health and Safety Code 11364.7, which states that selling 
paraphernalia for the purpose of ingesting illegal drugs is a 
misdemeanor. As to how authorities knew the items were going to be 
used to ingest illegal drugs and not tobacco, Shakowski was blunt:

"I've been a cop for 25 years and worked narcotics for 11 of those 
years," he says. "During that time, I have not encountered anyone who 
smoked tobacco out of a water bong. I'm not saying there aren't 
people who do-I've just never encountered them. We're making a 
distinction between hookah pipes and water bongs. Hookahs are from an 
older tradition-they look different and typically were used for 
smoking tobacco. The water pipes we seized-and we didn't seize any 
hookah pipes-are generally not used for legitimate purposes."

Common knowledge aside, says DA spokesman Paul Levikow, authorities 
knew the intended use of the items because they knew it.

"Our undercover agents went into the shops making it clear what they 
wanted to use the bongs for," he says, adding that the agents visited 
all seven of the shops prior to the raids. "The clerks knew what the 
buyer was buying the bongs for."

Regardless of the intended use of the paraphernalia, Bruce Mirken, 
director of communications for the pro-legalization Marijuana Policy 
Project in San Francisco, says the real issue is whether the raids 
were a good use of law-enforcement time and resources.

"You're dealing with a jurisdiction"-San Diego County-"that's 
intensely hostile to marijuana," Mirken says. "There's not the 
slightest evidence that paraphernalia laws have any impact on 
marijuana use. Even if these people have technically broken the law, 
this is law-enforcement activity that accomplishes precisely nothing." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake