Excerpts from Can You Pass the Acid Test?
Chapter 8
Paraphernalia
Equipment or Art, They Are Used to Ingest
By the year 2000 there are five common types of drug paraphernalia.
Three involve illegal drugs and two legal ones. The three illegal drugs
include marijuana pipes and rolling papers; crack pipes; and syringes for
injectable drugs, such as heroin. The two legal drugs are alcohol and
tobacco. For these two substances there are pipes, papers, drinking
glasses and related accessories.
Most people probably don’t consider drinking glasses as
paraphernalia, nor tobacco pipes. Yet they have their similarities.
Tobacco rolling papers have even come under fire, for their “possible”
connection to marijuana use. While crack pipes and syringes are entirely
an underground phenomena, marijuana pipes have an extensive history of
development, diversity and creativity that rivals their legal counterparts,
tobacco and alcohol. The same thing could be said of opium pipes, when
they were legal.
Hash Pipes/ Marijuana Pipes and Accessories
Marijuana pipes usually have smaller bowls than tobacco pipes. There
are two basic kinds of marijuana pipes. Small compactable pipes that are
simple, easy to hide and usually short. The others are water pipes or
bongs, which have a place for a coolant, such as water. They can be small
enough to be held in one hand or as high as three feet. They are clearly for
use in the home, as they would be conspicuous if used outside or in a car.
As of the year 2000, these pipes are still being sold, but their sales just
recently made a comeback after the industry faced heavy opposition
during the 1980s and ’90s. Many of the stores that sell these today, make
continuous references to tobacco and some even warn they will kick
someone out if they use any description of marijuana use. Since the 1990s,
few stores, if any, sell pipes with marijuana leaves pictured on them. Any
picture or label that signifies drug use is now taboo. Some stores won’t
even sell glass pipes because they can be used for crack cocaine. This is
because of a fierce campaign waged by the so-called “parent groups” of
the late 1970s, such as National Federation for Drug-Free Youth. They
attacked every aspect of the drug culture, including paraphernalia. Their
emphasis was on marijuana.
1980s
Paraphernalia Under Attack
If paraphernalia laws have been useful in trying to muzzle pro-drug
magazines, they were even more successful when they took on the actual
instruments of drug use.415 416 Although there has never been a national
ban on all paraphernalia, there have been bans in many states and many of
those bans can be credited to the “parents organizations.” Such a law was
passed in Kansas in 1981. It provided up to $1,000 or a year in jail for
possessing any type of drug paraphernalia.417
An anti-paraphernalia bill was passed in Illinois in August 1989. The
law makes it a felony to sell to minors with up to three years imprisonment
or fines of $1,000 per item sold or offered for sale. The law was signed by
Governor James R. Thompson, at Holy Angels Church, in Chicago. That
is the parish of one of two vigilante priests who spent a lot of time
harassing shops that sold paraphernalia and even took it upon themselves
to take the law into their own hands. The two priests, Fathers George
Clements and Michael Pfleger, lobbied for the ban. They also broke
property, forced their way into shops, trespassed and made threats against
shop owners.418 The priests used their church to form a group of thugs who
proudly called themselves the “God Squad.” They picketed record and
head shops as well as convenience stores that sold anything the group
considered “drug paraphernalia.”419 They also harassed those who tried to
buy such items.420
Other drug warriors have used boycotts and intimidation to stop the
sale of paraphernalia. For example, DIGNITY (an acronym for “Doing In
God’s Name Incredible Things Yourself), founded by Dick Gregory,
boycotted and protested at Kroger stores in Little Rock, Arkansas. They
actually took over a store and refused to leave until it quit selling “drug
paraphernalia.” They were referring to rolling papers the store sold for
making tobacco cigarettes. They made the ridiculous claim that Kroger
was a major supplier of drug paraphernalia, even though the rolling
papers were never intended for drug use. This was similar to the claim
made by the Liberty Foundation against 7-Eleven stores, that they were
major porn dealers, for selling Playboy and Penthouse. After meeting
with company officials, DIGNITY got pretty much what it wanted. The
store agreed to sell the papers only with tobacco.421 These and the other
actions had driven much of the drug paraphernalia industry out of business or underground.
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