Bong ban stops Miami from selling water pipes

Bong ban aims to smoke out head shops


BY ROBERT SAMUELS
rsamuels@MiamiHerald.com

At this Margate head shop, classic rock plays, incense wafts and the owner fumes.

One month ago, a state law went into effect that prohibits him from selling water pipes, air pipes and hookahs. The state now classifies those items as ``drug paraphernalia.''

Head shop owner Jay Work calls them ``art.''

``This is a $3,800 pipe,'' says Work, owner of Grateful J's Dead Head Shop, pointing to a four-foot-tall glass structure anchored by something that looks like a mix between a rose and a brain. ``You could put this in your dining room, next to a van Gogh painting.''

As of July 1, Florida law makes it a first-degree misdemeanor for a store to sell paraphernalia if 75 percent of a tobacco store's annual profits don't come from the sale of tobacco. No more than 25 percent of profits can come from drug paraphernalia -- a list that includes water pipes, hand pipes, hookahs, punctured metal bowls and chillers.

After failing to persuade the Legislature that the new law is unfair, Work and 29 other owners of small head shops have sued to keep the state from banning the bong. Going to court is the only way to prevent their niche businesses, which typically sell small amounts of tobacco, from going under, Work says.

``This is what happened with porn,'' Work says. ``They put in so many regulations that the small adult stores couldn't survive. Have you been to an adult store lately? Now, they're the size of Wal-Mart.''

The lawsuit, filed in Hillsborough County, is the latest chapter in a morality play that started in the Capitol and spilled into cyberspace, with characters as colorful as the bongs that stock the shelves at Work's store.

``We don't call them bongs here,'' Work says. ``They are hand pipes.''

Representing the head shop owners is a Pinellas County lawyer best known for defending a dancer's right to bare her buttocks. The law's main proponent, Rep. Darryl Rouson, a St. Petersburg Democrat, is a former crack addict who has made it his duty to rid the state of illegal drugs.

While no one is sure exactly how many head shops are in Florida, at least 250 owners affixed their names and addresses to a website petition against the law.

The stores tend to be low key. Work says he could only persuade a fraction to join the lawsuit. Only one head shop owner spoke against the law during the legislative process.

Head shop owners ``are cowards who hide through the Internet,'' Rouson says. ``They feign ignorance, but in reality, they know people use their smoking utensils for marijuana and other narcotics.''

Rouson says he could speak so authoritatively because he's been there: He bought his own pipes, used for pot and crack, from stores like Work's.

When his second wife died, Rouson says he spent $60,000 of life insurance money on cocaine in six months. He soon found himself in a courtroom, as his wife's relatives tried to convince judges that the lawyer was unfit to raise his 4-year-old son.

``I was determined to be a man, to be free of drugs and raise my son,'' Rouson says.

The legalization wave across the country -- 14 states and the District of Columbia have decriminalized, in certain cases, the possession of marijuana -- infuriates him. So Rouson has vowed to be a one-person barrier to such a movement, breaking down the drug trade head shop by head shop.

The effort is misguided, according to Luke Lirot, a Libertarian lawyer who specializes in adult entertainment issues. For one thing, he says, people who want to smoke pot will always find ways to do it.

``If the government takes away your right to do business it has to show, by an evidentiary standpoint, that they are making the world a better place,'' Lirot says, adding that the intent of the law is to stop people from using drugs.

``If people want to use drugs, they will find other ways -- an apple, PVC pipes, paper towel rolls.''

In his 35-page injunction request, Lirot contends that the law shouldn't be enforced until July 2011, a year after the law has gone into effect. Otherwise, Lirot argues, head shops could be held accountable for sales made before the law was enacted.

Work, who owns Grateful J's, hasn't stopped stocking his shelves with hand pipes, of which there are more than 100 styles. Violation of the law is punishable by as much as a year in prison, but Work says he thinks he's within his rights to actively protest.

The son of an adult film store owner, Work says he once dreamed of following his father's footsteps. Acquiring a license was too hard, he says, but he still kept to the idea of owning a business.

``I'm a hard-working American,'' Work says. ``I sold insurance, for God's sake. But I wanted to go into business for myself. I always enjoyed glass-blowing, so I thought about owning a head shop.''

His shelves are a motley collection: tie-dye T-shirts, teddy bears, a copy of The Beatles record Abbey Road, a can of Campbell's soup. At least a third of his sales come from pipes. About 13 percent comes from tobacco.

In the worst case, Work says, shops like his will just start selling more ``good ol', cancer-causing tobacco'' to meet the state standard.

On a recent Friday, foot-traffic at Grateful J's crested and flattened with each hour. Clients ranged from giggly young adults to middle-aged businessmen to seniors, all looking for the perfect pipe, each afraid to have any written record that they were there.

``I don't know anyone who would come here who doesn't smoke [marijuana], but that's our responsibility, not his,'' says a man who identified himself as John, 24. He came to see if Work could repair his beaker.

What happens if the state shuts down the store?

``I'll just get my next bong over the Internet.''



source: Bong ban aims to smoke out head shops - Florida - MiamiHerald.com

 

Yeah I know, not many people know about joints or blunts but I hear they work well!

 

SoCal is a lot cooler than Miami. In atmosphere and temperature. If you have the means, I highly recommend getting out to Los Angeles.