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JnEverett

Paraphernalia
Now it's legal ... ... Now it's not
11-15-06 l The Gazette l Deedee Correll

The shelves behind Charles Commins Jr.’s head and the display case below his hands are lined with pipes of all shapes and colors — purple, green, plastic, glass, ornately patterned, Scooby Dooshaped.

Don’t call them bongs, don’t mention marijuana, and Independent Records on East Platte Avenue will sell them to you.

Then when you walk out the door, don’t use them for anything but tobacco — and you have the difference between a legal pipe and something that could land you in court.

Plain and simple.

A proposed amendment to the Colorado Constitution had threatened to muddy the legal waters — if it
stopped being illegal to possess small amounts of marijuana, then could a pipe coated with marijuana resin still be illegal?

Amendment 44 failed on Election Day, however, preserving the status quo.

“The difference is the intent for which it’s used,” said Colorado Springs police Lt. Al Harmon. “A regular smoking pipe could be drug paraphernalia depending on what’s in the bowl.”

If a pipe smells of, but does not contain, marijuana then the officer has the discretion to decide whether to ticket the person, he said.

“If there’s no residue or seeds but it smells like marijuana, it’s good enough to charge,” Harmon said.

Offenders ticketed by city police will land in Municipal Court; those ticketed by the sheriff go to County Court.

Possession of drug paraphernalia is a Class 2 petty offense punishable by a fine of not more than $100.

The law has faced challenges over the years.

In the early 1980s, many states and cities passed laws to control the sale of drug paraphernalia. Challenges followed, with critics saying the definitions of “drug paraphernalia” didn’t clearly distinguish contraband from objects with legal uses.

In 1989, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled the law was not too vague or broad.

The decision stemmed from a case in which an Adams County head shop asked that amendments to the law passed in 1986 by the Legislature be declared unconstitutional.

A district judge agreed with the shop owners’ claim that the law imposed criminal liability for possession of anything that could be used in conjunction with drugs.

But the high court overturned that decision, saying a retailer’s right to sell smoking accessories and a purchaser’s right to buy and use them were entitled only to minimal due process protection. It also opined that regulation of items with lawful and unlawful uses was not an irrational means of discouraging drug use.

At Independent Records, owner Lewis Lambert said his employees are careful to comply with the law and that he and his coowners only sell items that can be used with tobacco.

“If the customer uses certain terminology, we ask them to refrain,” said Commins, a manager at the downtown store.

The store also is plastered with signs warning that the pipes are for tobacco, nothing else.

“We’ve never gotten involved with other accoutrements. We made decisions as owners about what we would carry. It had a cumulative positive effect,” Lambert said.

The stores have never sold products related to snuff, a very fine tobacco used for snorting. Nor do they sell very cheap glass pipes. “We question their use,” Lambert said.

In the early 1980s, he had his own brush with the law, when he and two employees were charged with selling or possessing drug paraphernalia. He said the charges were dropped in County Court, but the district attorney appealed to a district judge, who overturned the decision.

“Our defense was that it was unfair and ambiguous. It didn’t specify what was a smoking accessory and what wasn’t,” Lambert said.

Ultimately, he said, the charges never stuck. “I never paid a fine. I asked for my inventory back, but they said they lost it.”

The past 10-15 years have been quiet, Lambert said.

“We always have complied with the law, and we’ll continue to comply with the law,” he said.

 

reggie_the_dog

When I was there a few years ago you could buy a "water pipe" but if you said bong you were kicked out of the stores. They walk a tightrope but the stores stay open.

They also have really REALLY got pot for cheap in Colorado. Colorado is one of my favourite states.

Dennis

For marijuana scented candles, incense, air fresheners and body sprays to hit the market.

If everything smells like marijuana, probable cause for the smell of marijuana would be easily contested in court.

Buzzby

I've trained my German Shepherd to find weed for me. He can pick anyone who's holding out of a crowd. Your proposal would make it much more difficult for me to find someone to smoke me out.

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28g

A pet K9 -- that's a hoot! What a way to meet 420-friendly people!