cannabisnews.com: U.S. Hauls in Dealers of Bongs, Roach Clips U.S. Hauls in Dealers of Bongs, Roach Clips Posted by CN Staff on February 25, 2003 at 10:45:37 PT By Bryan A. Keogh, Washington Bureau Source: Chicago Tribune Signaling the start of a new front in the campaign against illegal drugs, federal authorities charged 55 people Monday with trafficking in drug paraphernalia in an investigation that focused on those who advertise and sell such items on the Internet.Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, standing with a phalanx of other law-enforcement officials who participated in the nationwide investigation, said that by targeting major paraphernalia distributors the government was dealing the drug trade a sharp blow. The investigation--a two-pronged effort known as Operation Pipe Dreams and Operation Headhunter--led to raids Monday in which officials confiscated thousands of tons of drug paraphernalia and tens of millions of dollars, and made numerous arrests, said Mary Beth Buchanan, the U.S. attorney in Pittsburgh whose office is coordinating the investigation with the Drug Enforcement Administration."It is an extremely profitable, illegal business," Buchanan said.But some critics said an investigation targeting such items as bongs and roach clips showed little more than political grandstanding, misplaced priorities and a waste of federal resources, particularly as the United States is waging a more pressing war against terrorism."At a time of intense alert regarding the terrorist threat, this is a pretty pathetic waste of criminal justice resources," said Eric Sterling, president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, a liberal think tank. "Is this a high priority when criminal justice resources are stretched so thinly?"Justice Department officials defended the drug paraphernalia investigation."It's not a waste of resources. It's still against the law," said Drew Wade, a department spokesman. "The federal government has the right and obligation to enforce federal laws."The investigation targeted distributors and shops selling such items as marijuana pipes, bongs and miniature scales, focusing on their sale over the Internet and by direct mail.Officials said the growth of the Internet has opened a major avenue for the sale of drug paraphernalia, as it has for other illegal items, from child pornography to drugs obtained without prescription."With the advent of the Internet, the illegal drug paraphernalia industry has exploded," Ashcroft said.Federal authorities said they were obtaining court orders to shut down 11 Internet sites that market drug paraphernalia, and that they would direct visitors to those sites to a Drug Enforcement Administration Web site that states why the site was taken offline.Ashcroft said drug paraphernalia distributors often target children in their marketing schemes, using cartoon characters and other gimmicks to entice young buyers. The Internet's ability to reach inside homes makes such schemes "even more frightening," the attorney general said.Officials emphasized that some of the items were designed to appeal to youth, such as marijuana pipes disguised as common objects such as highlighter markers, lipstick and flashlights. To support her contention that these pipes are marketed to teenagers, Buchanan said these are the types of items high school principals have been confiscating.Although drug paraphernalia are widely available in tobacco stores, so-called head shops and record stores, they are illegal to sell or possess in the U.S. According to federal law, drug paraphernalia are defined as anything primarily intended to be used in the processing, distribution or consumption of a controlled substance.The 55 people charged face penalties of up to 3 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000. Ashcroft also said federal authorities would confiscate any property or equipment used in the manufacturing of drug paraphernalia.Federal indictments were brought against 27 people in Pittsburgh, nine in Des Moines and 19 others elsewhere in the U.S.Besides the DEA and six U.S. attorneys, the investigation involved the U.S. Marshals Service, the Secret Service, the Customs Service and the Postal Inspection Service.While most of the indictments were against companies that authorities said were involved in large-scale manufacturing and distribution of drug paraphernalia, some involved local head shops that sell pipes and bongs directly to consumers.Describing marijuana as the drug that teenagers are most at risk to abuse, John Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said eliminating the drug paraphernalia market was as important as treatment and prevention in curbing drug use among young people.Law-enforcement officials also criticized distributors of drug paraphernalia for their roles in the illegal drug trade and said they shared responsibility for the violence it accompanies."People selling drug paraphernalia are, in essence, no different than drug dealers," said John Brown, acting administrator of the DEA. "They are as much a part of drug trafficking as silencers are a part of criminal homicide."But Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a group opposed to the government's anti-drug effort, questioned the assertion that cracking down on the drug paraphernalia industry would make high school students less likely to smoke marijuana."It seems like an absurd diversion and waste of resources," Nadelmann said. "I think what it represents is an increasing politicization of the war on drugs."Note: Operation Pipe Dreams hits Net sellers.Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)Author: Bryan A. Keogh, Washington BureauPublished: February 25, 2003Copyright: 2003 Chicago Tribune CompanyContact: ctc-TribLetter Tribune.comWebsite: http://www.chicagotribune.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:CJPFhttp://www.cjpf.org/Drug Policy Alliancehttp://www.drugpolicy.org/Drug-Paraphernalia Traffickers Out of Businesshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15555.shtmlU.S. Targets Purveyors Of Gear for Illicit Drugs http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15554.shtmlFeds Weed Out Drug Paraphernalia Sites http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15552.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #36 posted by FoM on February 25, 2003 at 22:30:47 PT Thanks Ron! That makes it so much better! Very smart to do too! [ Post Comment ] Comment #35 posted by Ron Bennett on February 25, 2003 at 21:41:41 PT DEA's Pipe Dreams Website Now Mirrored... For those folks not keen on visiting DEA websites, the DEA redirect page many here have read about is now mirrored at CANNABIS.COMhttp://www.cannabis.com/pipedreams/Feel free to copy. The DEA redirect webpage consists of three files: index.htm, image001.jpg, and image002.jpgRon [ Post Comment ] Comment #34 posted by potpal on February 25, 2003 at 19:58:06 PT An apple... ...and a screen, if you know what I mean.Sow every seed.Aloha. [ Post Comment ] Comment #33 posted by Sam Adams on February 25, 2003 at 19:30:26 PT IT trash-talking Damn straight Steve! Is it a coincidence that the area of U.S. with the best herb, Northern California, just happens to be where Silicon Valley is located? I think not!From what I've heard, the people at Stanford who founded the internet were all a bunch of stoner/hippie genius types back in the 60s-70s. [ Post Comment ] Comment #32 posted by billos on February 25, 2003 at 18:48:54 PT: the BIG confiscation This certainly is not the same country I served 4 years in the Navy for. How much did this folly cost us and how many people overdosed on heroine during all this?? I guess the cost is miniscule compared to the billions the U.S. is poised to give Turkey. Un-friggin-believable... [ Post Comment ] Comment #31 posted by FoM on February 25, 2003 at 18:05:19 PT A Note I saw it Ron! I feel so bad for everyone. I knew it was going to get really hard and it is. Everyday I wake up and hope they come to their senses and understand we're not a bunch of loons but serious, concerned folks who think reefer madness is total insanity. [ Post Comment ] Comment #30 posted by FoM on February 25, 2003 at 18:00:12 PT Ron Thank you! Please keep us informed with anything else you find out. I've always said you are very smart. [ Post Comment ] Comment #29 posted by herbdoc215 on February 25, 2003 at 17:21:57 PT The DEA are picking the WRONG community to play "cyber-wars" with...dumb-asses have no idea the can of worms they just opened up! They are in for a rude awakening in just who makes up this under ground community of cannabis users as we are certainly not the stoned losers they portray...we are IP pro's and technology leaders of the world, we are the ones who invented this shit...try writing code without pot. Plus everybody knows what a dull and dreary world this would be without the color and art we provide not to mention those of us with scientific intellectual gifts almost to a person smoke cannabis to relax today. I can't wait to see what some of these real pro's do to the DEAth punks little webby games as the pigs have MUCH more to lose than any of the kids who they just declared war with :) Peace, Steve Tuck Ps....Walters, Please oh please keep doing stupid shit as you have become my best attorney and you are proving every bad thing I ever said about you people. Nazi [ Post Comment ] Comment #28 posted by Ron Bennett on February 25, 2003 at 16:40:06 PT DEA's DNS configs are bad...try 208.255.166.219 DEA's DNS configs are really bad...not surprised that many folks are having trouble...use the IP address instead to see what many folks are already seeing when being redirected:www.pipedreams.dea.govhttp://208.255.166.219 [ Post Comment ] Comment #27 posted by Ron Bennett on February 25, 2003 at 16:37:18 PT Appears Some Domains Are Still Unchanged... First off, the domains ghettoweb.com and some others certainly redirect (aliased actually) to http://www.pipedreams.dea.gov , but only if proceeded with "www." in front of the domain name - DEA's DNS configs are messed up badly.It's a wonder any of the redirected domains even work at all...on a related note, some ISP filter/proxy configurations may prevent the redirected domains from working at all - the DEA used reserved IP ranges and unregistered host names - some DNS resolvers can't deal with that.With all that said, yes it appears some of the domain names have not yet been updated in the .COM zone - perhaps their hosts and/or owners are somehow resisting making the changes. Note that on DEA's side, all 11 domains are authoratative - in layman's terms, the DEA intends to redirect all of the domains...but perhaps they've now hit some snags :)Ron http://www.pipedreams.dea.gov [ Post Comment ] Comment #26 posted by herbdoc215 on February 25, 2003 at 16:30:12 PT www.pipedreams.dea.gov just 401's here I guess they know better than to mess with citizens of another country...Nazi's, nazi's, nazi's go back to pit from hell pawns of Satan. Peace, Steve Tuck [ Post Comment ] Comment #25 posted by herbdoc215 on February 25, 2003 at 16:24:09 PT Ron, here in Canada I'm not being re-directed Could it be that our IP providers are not honoring their routing changes? Since this is true I would say they are grabbing IP's of visitors. Our provider for www.hillbillydreams.ca are "true believers" and said over their dead locked-up bodies would they EVER co-operate with DEAth goons and Nazi laws. Everyday I grow more thankful to have my new home...Walters keeps this BS up and we won't even have to go to court as gov't here are seeing truth more everyday and they keep telling us our chances are getting better every new scheme the nuts come up with. We are getting ready for a flood of refugee's as it looks like we are in for a long one this time and a fight to the finish for our lives. Peace, Steve Tuck [ Post Comment ] Comment #24 posted by Virgil on February 25, 2003 at 16:12:13 PT Like the government cares about your health Here are some numbers (440,000 deaths per yea with US pushing sales worldwide while World Health Organization calls for change)in the first three paragraphs of this article about the demonweed, tobacco, the only true demonweed- http://www.oregonlive.com/public_commentary/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/editorial/104591859857720.xml Martin Donohoe: A shallow disregard for human health 02/24/03MARTIN DONOHOE, M.D. I n the United States, tobacco claims 440,000 lives per year and is responsible for $75 billion in direct medical costs (7000 to 8000 deaths and $1.5 billion to $2 billion per year in Oregon). Medical care and lost productivity due to tobacco use costs each U.S. citizen $475 per year. Worldwide, 4.2 million people per year die prematurely from tobacco-related diseases. By 2030, the WTO predicts that smoking will become the leading cause of death worldwide, killing 10 million persons per year. Cigarettes are the most marketed products in the world, products which when used as directed cause enormous suffering and death. U.S. tax money has been used to assist corporations in their marketing efforts to attract overseas smokers in the developing world, particularly women and children, to compensate for small declines in smoking prevalence at home. In my internal medicine practice, I see many individuals who, hooked as teens, now cough and wheeze their way through each day, shackled to oxygen tanks, growing emaciated and dying painfully from emphysema, cancer and heart disease. Many of them are uninsured or underinsured, unable to afford the inhalers and other prescription drugs necessary to ease their suffering. Many will soon lose basic health services due to the state's budget crisis and the failure of Measure 28. The World Health Organization has spent the past three years crafting a global treaty on tobacco control. Currently 190 countries are working on finalizing the treaty, which proposes to exempt tobacco control from free trade challenges, limit tobacco advertising, crack down on tobacco smuggling, standardize packaging (banning such deceptive terms as "light" and "mild") and improve warning labels. U.S. opinion surveys show overwhelming public support for the goals of the treaty. Despite this, the U.S. delegation to the treaty talks is attempting to scuttle the agreement in the name of free speech and free trade. This is not surprising given the current administration's strong ties to big tobacco. President Bush's chief of staff, Karl Rove, was a lobbyist and strategist for Phillip Morris (now Altria), the world's largest multinational tobacco company; Daniel Troy, now the Food and Drug Administration's chief counsel, represented the tobacco industry when it sued the FDA over tobacco ad regulation; and Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson received $72,000 in campaign contributions from Phillip Morris executives when he was governor of Wisconsin, and has also advised the primary tobacco lobbying firm in Washington, DC. Tobacco companies have given more than $20 million to Republican candidates for federal office since 1997; Phillip Morris has been the leading overall campaign contributor to Republicans since 1989. If you are having problems keeping track of all the Busch lies this article might help- http://www.bushwatch.net/bushlies.htm [ Post Comment ] Comment #23 posted by FoM on February 25, 2003 at 14:03:41 PT druid Thank you for your explanation. I wonder if they could bother those sites if they quick moved them? [ Post Comment ] Comment #22 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on February 25, 2003 at 14:03:10 PT LTE + $100 Sirs, Travelers leaving from O'Hare will surely rest easier in the wake of these arrests, secure in the knowledge that no terrorist plans to detonate a bong at 20,000 feet. Can the feds actually name someone who will smoke less marijuana because of these arrests? If anything, more people will improvise homemade paraphernalia, perhaps using unsafe materials such as aluminum or PVC piping. What a ridiculous example of the federal government's misplaced priorities. Meanwhile, I sit here with duct tape and plastic sheeting awaiting a terrorist attack our government seems to feel is inevitable. And perhaps it is; as long as our priorities are this backwards, terrorists will continue to have grievances as well as opportunities to voice them. Meanwhile, the people who should be protecting us from harm are off moralizing in the guise of the law.-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-Oooooo... this makes me so EYE-RATE that my upcoming annual contribution to NORML is going to come in a MONTH+ EARLIER than last year and I'm giving the full Benjamin this time. Hey, John Ashcroft, that's money I could have been spending on a BONG - but NOOOOOOO. I wouldn't have, but that's not the point. Freedom is the point. And while I'm still free to give to NORML - before THAT becomes a FEDERAL OFFENSE TOO - I'm going to do it, and I'm going to make some noise about it. Nyaah! [ Post Comment ] Comment #21 posted by John Tyler on February 25, 2003 at 13:55:15 PT DEA reasoning maybe Recently the DEA got a "bad report card" from the Congressional Budget Office due to their ineffectiveness. Maybe all of these raids are an effort to polish up their image with Congress and to demonstrate that they are doing something and being effective. [ Post Comment ] Comment #20 posted by TroutMask on February 25, 2003 at 13:55:08 PT Send a note to Asscroft From our friends at NORML:http://capwiz.com/norml2/issues/alert/?alertid=1510556&type=AN-TM [ Post Comment ] Comment #19 posted by druid on February 25, 2003 at 13:33:56 PT 312 oops sorry wrong link sorry the link I posted to the CNEWS article doesn't have the exact thing you said. I skimmed the article too fast. I have however seen what you are talking about in a couple of articles I have read today that were from US Newspapers.Heres one from Idahohttp://204.228.236.37/News/story.asp?ID=33832-----snip--------Organizations advocating the legalization of marijuana accused Ashcroft of grandstanding.“At a time when the rest of the country is worried about terrorism, this attorney general is going after people who sell pipes,” said Keith Stroup, the founder of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. “Surely he has something better to do with his time.”Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, suggested the busts were aimed at scoring political points against a perceived counterculture.“It would be more logical — although I´m not suggesting this — to prosecute people who sell beer mugs because of the poison consumed in them,” he said. -------------snip-------------------- [ Post Comment ] Comment #18 posted by druid on February 25, 2003 at 13:25:39 PT FoM-Just some answers :) You mean the web sites can go out of the country and continue just like normal? I don't understand these things but I'd like to understand what it all means? Think of this website as a file in a fileing cabinet and evertime someone posts something new a paper gets added to the file. Think of the Computer this website is on as the filing cabinet. The file inside the filing cabinet is not limited to only residing in that particular filing cabinet. One could easily take the entire file out and transfer it to another filing cabinet somewhere else or even take photocopies of the file and have the same file in 2 different filing cabinets so in case one file gets destroyed or lost there is always a backup. Richard Lake reminded me that CNews is on a Canadian Server. I had forgotten that it was but I guess that's really good. Why don't lots of web sites move out of the country as far as servers go? If my questions don't make sense it's because I really am not sure if I'm asking the questions the right way.A lot of websites and dot com companies ARE located in other countries that have more liberal laws. A good example is the company who ownes(owned?)KAZAA . They located on an Island outside of New Zealand(I think) to take advantage of the liberal copyright, piracy, and business laws.Some people like myself just simply don't know anyone in another country that would be willing to host a website(or use their filing cabinet! :D ) or I can't afford what it would cost me to purchase space on their surver not to mention the limitations I would have on another server such as complete admin rights(root) and stuff and code limitations such as you have here on CNEWS(not being able to use HTML code in our messages anymore etc).It would be much more practicle and easier for me to just have my own server in my living room and pay for a business account from the local cable company. [ Post Comment ] Comment #17 posted by druid on February 25, 2003 at 13:14:59 PT 312 I have seen the comments by Ethal Nadelman in several US news articles as well.Also check out this link http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread15555.shtml you will find it at the end of that article also. [ Post Comment ] Comment #16 posted by FoM on February 25, 2003 at 13:12:59 PT afterburner I haven't seen him either. I was wondering if he was ok. [ Post Comment ] Comment #15 posted by Ron Bennett on February 25, 2003 at 13:12:24 PT Confirmed! Redirection is Now Happening! Prime- you're right, they're not net savvy at all. Their DNS config for the domains is damn right bad...using reserved IP ranges, unregistered host names, cnames where A records should be, etc...could go on and on. Yeah, their current setup works, but not well.Here's what's going on...Various domains such as http://www.ghettoweb.com , http://www.omnilounge.com and others have been aliased to http://www.pipedreams.dea.gov (IP 208.255.166.219 which is in DEA's assigned IP range)Ron http://www.pipedreams.dea.gov/ [ Post Comment ] Comment #14 posted by 312 on February 25, 2003 at 13:07:11 PT: Guardian Couldn't find the actual article after searching the guardian website, but according to:..http://www.thehempire.com/pm/weblog.php?id=P385..they had an article. Practically identical to the American news articles but the following paragraph was included:Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, suggested the busts were aimed at scoring political points against a perceived counterculture. "It would be more logical - although I'm not suggesting this - to prosecute people who sell beer mugs because of the poison consumed in them,'' he said. A fair point conveniently omitted from the American press articles I've seen so far. [ Post Comment ] Comment #13 posted by afterburner on February 25, 2003 at 13:06:42 PT: FoM and All Has anyone heard from The GCW lately? [ Post Comment ] Comment #12 posted by FoM on February 25, 2003 at 12:58:49 PT Just a Question You mean the web sites can go out of the country and continue just like normal? I don't understand these things but I'd like to understand what it all means? Richard Lake reminded me that CNews is on a Canadian Server. I had forgotten that it was but I guess that's really good. Why don't lots of web sites move out of the country as far as servers go? If my questions don't make sense it's because I really am not sure if I'm asking the questions the right way. [ Post Comment ] Comment #11 posted by Prime on February 25, 2003 at 12:45:13 PT Redirecting... I checked the Omnilounge.com site this morning. It was not redirecting, but instead had its index.html page replaced with one stating that the DEA had shut down the site for violations.The site is now active again and accepting credit cards. So something happened to make the Feds put it back to normal.The ghettoweb.com site is showing a directory listing, so it appears that their index.html file was also removed. That site appears to working normally again.I dont think the DEA is quite net savvy enough to handle what they are trying to do. These sites could be mirrored and redirected to an off-shore mirror in a matter of moments. [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by FoM on February 25, 2003 at 12:38:48 PT Ron Not so far. They said it might take a while for that to be done. I think up to 30 days. I heard something close to that on C-Span last night. [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by Ron Bennett on February 25, 2003 at 12:33:57 PT NOT Seeing Redirection For Those Domains... Are you saying those two domains are redirecting *now*?Not seeing any signs of redirection from here nor see how based on the current DNS configs for those two domains. Anyone else being redirected for those two domains?Ron [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by FoM on February 25, 2003 at 11:54:10 PT Just a Note I removed my two comments. I didn't feel comfortable leavng them on CNews. Thought I should mention why they disappeared. [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by cloud7 on February 25, 2003 at 11:48:53 PT Whoa It's happening, they're redirecting sites.www.omnilounge.comwww.ghettoweb.com [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by Sam Adams on February 25, 2003 at 11:26:02 PT coverage not too bad I think every article I've seen has given excellent exposure to critical rhetoric from reformers. Even the AP and NY Times articles have a very critical tone.This is the "Nader effect" working, IMO. Bush is so far to the right, he's mobilizing support for us. Ashcroft is such an extremist that he's almost a comical figure, even the WOD-biased corporate media can't resist ridiculing the guy.Whereas, if the Clinton administration had done this, how critical do you the media would have been? [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by WolfgangWylde on February 25, 2003 at 11:24:27 PT Who are these idiots kidding? You can walk into any convenience store in America and have your pick of several brands of rolling papers. These guys are just plain stupid. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Virgil on February 25, 2003 at 11:12:58 PT It's all worthy of ridicule, now get busy Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, standing with a phalanx of other law-enforcement officials who participated in the nationwide investigation, said that by targeting major paraphernalia distributors the government was dealing the drug trade a sharp blow. Just how goofy can you get? Hey, what is the decision on the law the DEA made about hempfood back in 2001. And where are the arrest numbers for 2002 or did policy change to report everything in October?These fundamentalist are crazy. They should not dress them up and they should not let them out.Get ready for this. Goddamn Jesus. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by Commonsense on February 25, 2003 at 11:08:52 PT Ashcroft Scores Another Blow Against Marijuana "People selling drug paraphernalia are, in essence, no different than drug dealers," said John Brown, acting administrator of the DEA. "They are as much a part of drug trafficking as silencers are a part of criminal homicide."Just how often are silencers used in murders? So I guess this means that people selling drug paraphernalia are infinitesimally small part of drug trafficking. Well, at least now people won't be able to smoke marijuana anymore because they won't be able to buy pipes online. Yup, there won't be anymore pot smoking after this. You know working as an attorney I've only represented one person who has gotten in trouble for possessing a silencer. Guess where he got it? He made it himself just like anyone who wants to smoke pot but who doesn't want to roll joints will make their own pipes with hard to find items like Diet Coke cans and a safety pins. Ashcroft scores another blow against marijuana. I've sort of been hoping for a headline that says something like "Ashcroft Struck by Lightening." [ Post Comment ] Post Comment