MINNEAPOLIS (Oct. 23) - Bong water can count as a controlled substance, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled Thursday in a decision that raises the threat of longer sentences for drug smokers who fail to dump the water out of their pipes. In a 4-3 decision Thursday, the state's highest court said a person can be prosecuted for a first-degree drug crime for 25 grams or more of bong water that tests positive for a controlled substance. The decision, which reverses two lower court rulings, came in the case of Sara Peck. Items seized during a search of her Rice County home in 2007 included a glass bong - a type of water pipe often used to smoke drugs - that contained 37 grams - about 2 1/2 tablespoons - of a liquid that tested positive for the presence of methamphetamine. The Supreme Court said that unambiguously counts as a drug "mixture" under the wording of state law and sent the case back to Rice County District Court for further proceedings. The decision, authored by Justice G. Barry Anderson, noted that the liquid wasn't plain clear water, but had a pink color and fruity odor, and that a narcotics officer had testified that drug users sometimes keep bong water to drink or inject later. The statute defines a drug "mixture" as "a preparation, compound, mixture, or substance containing a controlled substance, regardless of purity." When the language of a statute is unambiguous, the high court said, precedents prohibit courts from disregarding the letter of the law under the pretext of pursuing the letter of the law. In a sharply worded dissent, Justice Paul Anderson said the majority's decision "does not make sense, and borders on the absurd." He said it isn't consistent with what the Legislature intended when it wrote the state's drug laws. And he blasted Rice County authorities for charging Peck with such a serious crime. If bong water is considered a drug mixture, and it weighs enough to raise the crime to a first-degree drug offense, the presumed sentence for a first-time offender is seven years and two months in prison, and a felony drug offense goes on his or her record, Paul Anderson wrote. But if the bong water is treated as part of the drug paraphernalia, as the lower courts held, he wrote, the same defendant would face no more than a $300 fine and the petty misdemeanor conviction would not go on his or her record. Justices Alan Page and Helen Meyer joined in Paul Anderson's dissent. Attorney Bradford Delapena, who represents Peck, said he had not yet had a chance to discuss the ruling with her, but he said the dissent correctly pointed out the problems the ruling raises. "They're treating Ms. Peck, who had two tablespoons of bong water, as if she were a major drug wholesaler," he said. Delapena said Peck's case now goes back to the trial court, where he said prosecutors could use the ruling to try to extract a guilty plea to a more serious offense with a stiffer sentence than a $300 fine on a petty misdemeanor. He laughed at the suggestion that it means dope smokers should empty their bongs promptly. "I wouldn't presume to draw that lesson," he said. "I would just stick with the legal lessons." Bong Water Can Be Illegal Drug, Minnesota Court Rules
wow...amazing. two months from now, it will be a 20 year mms for saying the word "drug(s)" within a public setting
Drinking, i can understand. slightly. Injecting? unless that bong water has been used like 1000 times, one would need to inject a crap load of water into their veins to get a noticeable high. Stupid. That should be on the article's footnote.
If a judge were to ever state that someone would drink the remaining bong water I would demand that the judge be allowed to take a Wiff of the bong water and tll me that he would drink that shit. Other than friends being dared to drink bong water i personally know of not a single individual who will save and drink their own bong water. Fucking stupid.
Fucking ridiculous. By that logic you can test someone's urine and if they test positive they are manufacturing a controlled substance. I agree with the dissenting Justices. What a load of MORONS these people are.
heres another thing to ponder: anti marijuana sites state that bong water only filters the ash, not chemicals. if ash is nothing more than carbon, then how would somebody test bong water for drug residue?
i think there are places in the world where positive drug tests are considered to be possession of the drug.
Hey people... I have news for you... THC is ILLEGAL in the United States... So naturally, ANYTHING that contains THC is also illegal. This is why you can't legally get seeds in the US (because they contain small amounts of THC). Some states allow this. It's called 'internal possession'. Water filters out minimal amounts of THC.
Oh, lets protect our children from all the bad guys selling bags of bongwater on the street for people to consume, some way... As another poster said, only in the us...
You piss out cannibinoids when you urinate. That's how a drug test works. You can piss out psylocin from mushrooms and metabolites of cocaine, meth, MDMA and degraded lsd. Anything that goes into your body, comes out. Hell, 90% of US currency has traces of cocaine on it. In many states, any testable amount of cocaine is considered possession. But most of these states don't have prosecutors and judges that ridiculously misinformed and ignorant.