Raids target Internet drug paraphernalia sales

[bobbi]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal authorities charged 55 people with trafficking in illegal drug paraphernalia in an investigation they said targeted the nation's biggest Internet distributors of marijuana bongs, crack pipes and other drug abuse gear.

In coordinated raids on Monday, officials confiscated "thousands and thousands of tons" of paraphernalia from companies boasting up to $50 million in annual sales, said Mary Beth Buchanan, U.S. attorney in Pittsburgh whose office is leading the "Operation Pipe Dreams" investigation along with the Drug Enforcement Administration.

"No one would possibly use these items for smoking tobacco," Buchanan said at a Justice Department news conference.

Attorney General John Ashcroft said the sale of drug paraphernalia has exploded on the Internet, making it easier for teenagers and young adults to buy it. The items often are disguised as such things as lipstick cases to escape detection and are marketed under code names and symbols.

Read full story here:

http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/02/24/drug.paraphernalia.ap/index.html

 

[pistol]

this is an example of the things that make our society so silly. i could make a bong out of a soda can in five seconds, should they now bust the coca-cola corporation?

while most other nations have had lower amounts of violent drug crime by making drug laws more lenient, we still spend millions on keeping hundreds of thousands of people in prison guilty of no more than sparking up a joint.

 

[bobbi]

well they sure were creative, I have to hand them that much.

 

[VortexDesign]

I don't know what everyone is so mad about. There will be another company, and another company and another one after that selling drug paraphernalia on the web or any other place. Just means us potheads might have to deal with some inflation lol.

I also heard people saying that this article is just another representation of our nation not being as free as we'd like it to be. I say b.s. to that

I mean, being able to pick up an eighth, then go to the local Diversity Store down the street and get a really cool weed poster, a bong and a fold away pipe that fits in your wallet is freedom enough for me

 

[bobbi]

no matter how hard they try to get rid of it, it's not going to stop people from buying it, and I'm sure that there are other people some where on the net selling the same things but they haven't been caught yet.

 

[DarkDevil]

lol Thats a joke, i can make pipes and bongs out of anything. as Pistol said, a coke can, a coke bottle, a shaft of a ballpoint pen and some tin foil, Basically anything combined with Tinfoil, a Bike pump and a Cable Television connector (yes, that little screwy thing thats on the end of cable wires. I find the old ones that are made out of a really lite metal work best) Honnestly, anything can be made into a bong. Nobody has stumped me yet with a logical object. Don't be stupid and ask me how to make a bong/pipe out of a peice of paper, its not going to happen. (btw, its called a joint anyways )