Consequences of Prohibition
Drug War Issues
Politics & Advocacy
In a move aimed directly at marijuana smokers and the vendors who supply them with their pipes and bongs, the Florida legislature has passed a bill that will make it illegal to sell drug paraphernalia in most head shops. The bong bill, HB 187, passed the Senate earlier and was approved unanimously in a House floor vote on Wednesday. It now awaits signature by Gov. Charlie Christ.
Violation of the law would be a misdemeanor. Offenders could face up to a year in jail. If signed by the governor, the law would go into effect on July 1.
Head shop owners tried to organize to fight back, even creating a web site, Kill Bill 187, in a vain bid to block the bill. Jay Work, the owner of Grateful J's Grateful Deadhead Shop in Margate and a second shop in Boca Raton, led the fight.
"Shop owners, small-business owners are being thrown under the bus here," he told the Broward Palm Beach New Times. "They're saying that if I sell a $4,000 piece of art at my store, that I have to sell $12,000 worth of cigarettes. I'm not sure who that helps," Work says. "They're saying basically you can sell this stuff -- we're just going to make it really hard."
While drug paraphernalia is already illegal in Florida, pipes that could be used to smoke tobacco are legal to make, own, buy, and sell. They only become paraphernalia if they are used to do something illegal. But this bill attempts to circumvent the law with its restrictions on sales, Work said.
"The pipe itself is just a pipe," Work says. "The pipes I sell are harmless unless you take the pipe outside and beat someone over the head with it."
"I've been fighting the pipe industry for the longest, because it is all a part of the drug trade and the criminal enterprise that we know exists and destroys neighborhoods, families and order in our society," said sponsor Rep. Darryl Rouson (D-Tampa Bay) earlier this month. "When was the last time you stopped at a red light and saw someone smoking a hit of tobacco out of one of these one-shooters or water pipes?" he told NBC Miami.
Rouson, a self-described former crackhead, has gone after paraphernalia in the past, too. Last year, he proposed a bill that would have imposed an extra sales tax on smoking paraphernalia to pay for DARE programs that were facing cuts.
"Florida has a conscience and an awareness that marijuana and the smoking and ingesting of it is not healthy for an individual, nor is it healthy for public safety and the order in society," Rouson added.
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Comments
Some questions for Mr. Rouson
1. In the interest of transparency and disclosure, "self-described former crackhead" Rouson should divulge what his own smoking history is, whether it includes (thousands of) hot burning overdo$e $igarettes, and whether some paid favoritism or nostalgia toward the hot burning overdo$e $igarette indu$try underlies his writing a bill which, as J. Work says above, actively encourages the sale of $igarettes (the profit margin in which is severely threatened by the emergence of one-hitters-- not "-shooters", note the propaganda there-- should tobackgo users imitate wise, rational cannabis users, adopt a 25-mg. serving-size utensil and tear a 25-mg. "pinch" off a 700-mg. "regular" each time they want "a smoke").
2. Does a 6-million per year $igarette genocide qualify as destructive of neighborhoods, families and societal order?
3. Is a vaporizer (usable for any herb material) considered "paraphernalia"?
4. Have you noticed the hidden propaganda agenda in the word
para - phernal - alia
paranoid infernal alien
??
5. Meanwhile who cares about head shops when you can go to wikiHow.com: Make Smoke Pipes out of Everyday Objects and related articles. Instead of paying inflated prices at that guy's store you can invest some hand labor time (I almost said "work", don't be confused) adopting/adapting socket wrench or hose nipple, #40 screen, flextube etc. (the first ones are probably lying in your garage somewhere right now), and make one-hitters for yourself and 420 friends. Remember, 6-mm. crater diameter; "if it looks like a one-hitter, it is a one-hitter."
What's next? Pop cans (pipe)
What's next? Pop cans (pipe) and two liter bottles (bong)? I think this guy must still be hittin' the crack pipe? "Paraphernalia... I see paraphernalia everywhere." Vote this crackhead out of office Florida A.S.A.P.
Drug war IS Crime. Stop or we'll sue.
Each of the more than 800,000 annual marijuana arrests nationwide are made on the grounds that cannabis and cannabinoids are lawfully listed in Schedule I, having "no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States and a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision."
Here's the truth for those who can handle it:
Marinol is a synthetic chemical that works like THC, a psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. It is administered at 100 percent strength, two to five times more powerful than the strongest available strains on the black market. Generically named Dronabinol, warning labels specifically permit driving and using machinery when users know how the medicine affects them.
On Oct. 7, 2003, the United States Patent and Trademark Office awarded patent #6630507* to the Department of Health and Human Services, acknowledging an accepted medical use in treatment for cannabinoids and detailing a variety of accepted uses under medical supervision.
Read that sentence again. Here's proof:
http://tinyurl.com/classactionlawsuit
Again, the legal basis for millions of arrests is a demonstrably false claim.
If you don't like legal marijuana, you'll hate paying reparations.
Got attorneys?
This was spearheaded by a
This was spearheaded by a Democrat, Darryl Rouson from St. Petersburg. He is a former crack addict and claims he is doing this so that people will not be able to smoke crack anymore. Of course, the majority of the FL House are Republicans and as they believe in "Small Government" this is right up their alley as well.
Doesn't the FL legislature have bigger priorities than this? Jobs, property insurance rates skyrocketing, diminishing property values, crumbling infrastructure, mortgage crisis, tourism woes, oil headed to beaches................?
This bill is completely ridiculous on so many levels. First, as a recovering tobacco addict, I don't see why a headshop should actually be encouraged to sell MORE tobacco or else lose the right to sell waterpipes. I suppose headshops will need to find some interesting and dynamic types of tobacco to meet this quota. I'm sure people will become addicted to some of this tobacco because of this stupid law. Let the illness of any one of these people be on Rouson's head.
Second, crack addicts don't tend to use pricey waterpipes. They use glass stems, broken antennas, small liquor bottles, really anything they can get their hands on to smoke. What % of a headshop's annual sale is from Crack addicts? My guess is about 2%, if that. So the whole premise of the law is flawed.
Third, I know a Democrat brought this bill to the table. But it was universally supported by Republicans as well. This sure sounds like small gov't - forcing a tax paying business to have to sell more tobacco and have the gov't annually have to inspect their books to make sure they sold enough tobacco, or else they can't sell a glass or acrylic product. Love the "small government".
Finally, anyone can buy pipes on the internet, so FL will just end up losing even more in sales taxes, just what we need in a declining economy.
Hey Charlie, this is your chance to show yourself as a free thinker who is sick of the same old Democrat/Republican BS. This law will likely result in the loss of thousands of jobs and at least hundreds of thousands of lost tax dollars to the internet. Stoners will always get stoned. This law will prevent no one from getting stoned. This law will not benefit FL in any way. I think you would be surprised what a hero a large group of Floridians would think you are if you would veto this bill.
SPL
Irate
I don't know how this bill has gone this far...this is terrible. So many things wrong here. If I just wanted to get high I would carve out an apple. I enjoy shopping for glass to display at my house. I'm not going to deny that I smoke marijuana to relax, i'm an active member of NORML at UCF and i'm registered with PUFMM and this just goes to show you how far behind Florida is in this movement.
To Gov Crist,
I am an honors student at the University of Central Florida, I am active in my church, I work full time for Disney to pay my way through school. I am an education major. I am an educated, happy, friendly, and active citizen. But I am also a ganja smoker. I am not an "addict" any more than you are. I know the significant medical benefits marijuana has to offer (not to mention how the taxes could help our economy) I have seen patients who lives were transformed. So tell me, why can't you? Veto this bill. I will be protesting this.
With my position on marijuana legalization aside, I have to agree with the comments on here about what is to be gained from this bill? I only see this
hurting our economy and small business owners. My intial reaction to the bill was selfish but the more I think about this the more upset I become when I concern myself with the effects of this law and the thoughts which have fueled the argument. This reminds me of the bill which was proposed which would have made wearing sagging pants illegal.
If this bill passes I'm moving out of Florida
Paraphernalia Laws increase disease harm from drugs
Sure, banning bongs is mostly just to let the legislature look self-righteous while annoying us hippies, and they're too chicken to be complete about it by banning brownie mix and chocolate chips as well. Bongs do cool smoke, which makes smoking marijuana safer, so banning them is pretty hypocritical when the justification for drug laws is to protect public health, but it's not a big deal.
But the original paraphernalia laws, banning needles used for injecting heroin, have been a huge public health disaster, because they force junkies to share needles and reuse dirty needles. It's the main cause of AIDS in heterosexuals, and also spreads other diseases like hepatitis. Junkies who have diabetes don't get AIDS, because they can get clean needles at the drug store with their insulin, and doctors and nurses who abuse various injected drugs can also get their needles. Even if the prohibitionists in the legislature want to harass marijuana smokers by banning bongs, they really need to relegalize needles.
DARE funding? Really?
Maybe funding for D.A.R.E. has been cut because it hasn't been found to effect the prevalence or onset of drug use one bit? And because it teaches kids to rat on their parents if they find drugs?
Not that they needed this law in the first place. The head shop around the corner from me, which was run by a rather nice husband and wife, got raided again and again, with the police destroying thousands in inventory in the process, until they went out of business.
Here's a real story for the
Here's a real story for the idiot crackhead. My wife was stricken with ALS (Lou Gerhig's Disease). According to medical experts, the average life span after initial onset of symptoms is 3-5 years. However, since medical MJ was passed in Cali, they have been able to do more research, and found that marijuana is the ONLY substance that slows down progression of the disease. My wife smoked marijuana and survived for 9 years from the onset of symptoms and was not NEARLY as incapacitated at her death as were most victims of the disease. Most ALS patients go through an inability to speak or move anything but there eyes. Imagine the horror of being in that state, fully aware but unable to communicate or even move a muscle. My wife and I were able to speak with each other until the day before he passed and, as I said, MARIJUANA IS THE ONLY SUBSTANCE KNOWN TO PROLONG THE LIFE AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN ALS PATIENTS. I would have smoked crack with her, shot heroin with her, or whatever it took to have those extra few years with her and for her to not have to suffer with it any more than she did. But all it took was to toke with her as long as she was able. I can tell you firsthand, anyone who says weed has no redeeming value is either an idiot or is totally misinformed!
new ways
ok so theres a real easy way around this law ,, so you simply set a small bag of tobacco next to each piece of tobacco acc. you wish to sell ,, simply put the price you want for the tobacco acc. on the bag of tobacco , you simply sell them the tobacco ( for the price you want for the acc. ) and give them the acc for free ,, all you have done is sold tobacco and gave the acc away for free , and everyone will be happy :)
I honestly think its just
I honestly think its just another way for the state of Florida to make more money. Think about it if weed was legal how much money would they loose out on through the court system and bonds and fines and state attorney fees. How many people would be out of jobs: probation officers, public offices for drug testing, etc. So that's why they keep illegal. Passing a bill for bongs only breaks are own civil rights. And if this excuse is allowed, in the future we the people will probably lose all our rights so on and so forth. What is crazy is that in california weed is legal for medical use and every other state is allowed to sale bongs, pipes etc. Wouldn't that start a underground sales market and smuggle? Yes and then they could find reason to arrest and charge and make millions off the people of florida. I think florida needs to worry about the oil that's in the gulf and its lowest economy state. They need to create more job opportunities and raise the min wages. Get rid of all these medians that drive businesses bankrupt because there not on the right side of the road that's most traveled.
disgusted by this.
Wait a former crackhead?! And wait one second.......DARE?! Lets see, I went through dare in elementary school. You want to know what that taught my class? Nothing. If people are going to experiment with drugs, its just something they are going to do. Spending countless tax dollars on a program to tell kids what there parents should have told them in the first place.
Im sure if this guy was still a crackhead, he wouldnt even know how to take a stance on this. He'd be to worried about finding his next cho'boy.
Sorry boss, crack is a bit heavier than cannabis. And why are we trusting a former crackhead as a rep!? WTF is wrong with this picture!?
Bunch of ignorant fools! I'm
Morons
Florida is backasswards and always has been. I'm afraid we will just have to bite the bullet until all of these self righteous, self serving , biblebelt assholes start to die off. No one seems to approach things with 'any' common sense anymore. Power to the pot smoker. I am a 56 year old type one diabetic and have been for over 35 tears. I have multiple myloma (incurable cancer). I smoke pot every day. NO ONE can tell me that this doesn't' make my life tolerable. In Michigan I would have a prescription in a heartbeat. At least some states have compassion. Good for all of the states that have decriminalized/legalized medical and recreational marijuana. It' nice to see that some of the states in this "great' country have woken up. If pot smoking is a crime so, is tobacco,alcohol and all of the medicine that legally is prescribed in this nation of ours. Charlie is just another self serving, asshole politician who doesn't have the slightest clue as to what Florida needs to do to keep up with the rest of the country.
TYpical Crackhead
This is what happens when a crackhead gets elected to public office.
Only Crackheads...Time we start voting
If people who buy these pipes are not struggling financially (as they aren't using a coke can instead) why illegal? Do you not think it is weak minded crack heads that waste every cent and steal and deal to support their habits until they go to jail that should be targeted? This bill is supposedly aimed at pot smokers when it should be aimed at the 1%ers of pot smokers that waste away, don't work, smoke crack and use other hardcore drugs daily. F u weak minded politician. Way to drive away a multi million dollar business from the Florida economy.
Younger generations it's time we start researching and voting so dumb ideas don't get unanimous approval.
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