And in other drug-related news, I recently came across a bill that Crist signed this summer convening a Drug Paraphernalia Abatement Task Force.
Wait, where have we heard that phrase before?
Oh, yes — Pinellas County created a similar task force in 2005 to research and recommend ways of dealing with the county’s tobacco accessory stores, better known as “headshops.†Last summer, they presented their recommendations to the County Commission. The 15-member task force mainly wanted the commission to author an ordinance that would attempt to lower the standards on what a retailer should have known about products’ potential uses when selling, advertising or manufacturing them.
Under current state statutes, retailers can only be found guilty of selling drug paraphernalia when it has been proven they knew the items they sold would be used to ingest drugs, but the new ordinance attempted to tweak the standard: When the retailer sold a product, did he have reasonable knowledge that it would be used to ingest illegal drugs?
Despite haranguing by local tobacco store owners — including one who took me to Home Depot to demonstrate that many stores carry items that could be construed as drug paraphernalia —the ordinance passed last September.
Nothing major has happened since the vote — the stores are selling the same wares as they did before — although acquaintances have told me some Pinellas County headshops will now photocopy your license and keep it on file in case law enforcement questions whether the store is checking IDs or not asking tough questions about what you might be smoking out of that bong. Of course, you can avoid all that by a short drive over to Hillsborough County, where there is no such ordinance. But if this task force comes up with the same recommendations (due in 2008), it could present a major buzz kill for stoners and tobacco enthusiasts alike.
This article appears in Aug 22-28, 2007.