Owners of “head shops” in Florida say a new law restricting the sale of bongs and glass pipes may not be strong enough to have a real effect on business, Tbo.com reported Monday.
The bill was sponsored by St. Petersburg Rep. Darryl Rouson and signed into law last Wednesday by Gov. Rick Scott. This makes “knowingly and willfully” selling drug paraphernalia a first-degree misdemeanor. The new restrictions include bongs as well as acrylic, glass or ceramic smoking pipes.
Rouson’s goal was to take aim “at the hypocrisy of stores that classify themselves as tobacco outlets, but make most of their money from pipes commonly used for smoking marijuana or crack,” said the TBO.com story.
“Why make it easy as a corner-store to get a pipe that everyone knows is being used for illegal drugs?” Rouson told reporters.
According to storeowners, the law will not have much effect, since it simply duplicates the current federal restrictions. Federal law already punishes stores if they sell pipes and other items to customers who admit using them for illegal drug use.
Rouson’s bill is just the latest in his battle against drug paraphernalia. As a former user of crack cocaine, Rouson has spent most of his political career clashing with tobacco shop owners and glass pipe manufacturers, who have banded together over the years to combat many of Rouson’s legislative actions.
An earlier attempt by Rouson to ban glass pipes failed in 2009, where a motion to add a sales tax to raise money for drug treatment died in the Legislature. The following year, he was more successful in a bill limiting the sale of bongs and pipes to stores. That law curbs sales to shops that are able to prove that at least 75 percent of their income comes from tobacco sales, and only 25 percent from pipe sales.
Legal challenges by tobacco store owners delayed enforcement of that law.
The new “head shop” law probably won’t change the way St. Petersburg police deals with them, police spokesperson Mike Puetz told tbo.com. Police department lawyers will review the ruling before deciding if they will brief officers on its enforcement, he said.
The original article can be found at TBO.com.
