cannabisnews.com: Heads Up! Local Headshops Try To Weather DEA Storm Heads Up! Local Headshops Try To Weather DEA Storm Posted by CN Staff on November 10, 2003 at 07:28:10 PT By Robert Plotkin Source: Miami Herald The way the Coconut Grove Chamber of Commerce sees it, a federal crackdown on sellers of marijuana pipes is blowing smoke. ''If I was a big, nasty, international drug dealer, I wouldn't get my supplies at some cute little shop in the Grove,'' said Seth Gordon, the chamber's president.That's not how John Brown, over at the Drug Enforcement Administration, sees it. To the DEA's acting administrator, headshops are the visible storefront of an international drug network. ''They are as much a part of drug trafficking,'' Brown said, ``as silencers are a part of criminal homicide.''Operation Pipe Dream, a federal sting, began this year in Pittsburgh when agents noticed a dealer getting his supplies -- baggies and mannitol, a white powder used to cut cocaine and heroin -- at Hari's Karishna and Novelties International, a headshop just blocks from the office of U.S. Attorney Mary Buchanan.''We didn't realize that these headshops were supplying drug dealers,'' said Buchanan, one of Attorney General John Ashcroft's favored lieutenants. ``We started to look at how those stores were supplied and were surprised to learn how there were 10 large Internet distributors selling products nationwide to drug users.''A ''billion-dollar industry,'' she calls it.The ensuing sting stung Tommy Chong, the actor best known for the pot-smoking comedies of Cheech and Chong. He was slapped with a nine-month prison sentence in October for using the Internet to sell 7,500 bongs, the water pipes used for smoking marijuana.The crackdown also shut down the nation's 10 largest distributors of drug paraphernalia.So far, the only Florida arrest has been Ahmad Rakine, of Pembroke Pines, charged in February with selling scales, mannitol and ''sneaky pipes,'' which look like lipstick tubes and high lighters. He got five months for conspiracy to distribute and turned over $181,339 in proceeds.Headshops in Broward and Miami-Dade counties were not targeted, but many of their distributors were put out of business.''Ashcroft shut down Crush and 101 North, two of our biggest suppliers,'' said Dana Murphy, who works at Lazy Days in Deerfield Beach.''We have never had any complaints about Lazy Days, and I have been in elected office for 14 years,'' said Albert Capellini, the mayor of Deerfield Beach, whose planning board includes Lazy Days owner William Derian.SCARED OWNERSLocal headshop proprietors, however, feared arrest.''All the headshop owners were scared,'' said Mike Kuryla, co-owner of Adams House Tobacco and Accessories in Coconut Grove.Under Florida law, it's a felony to sell pipes if ''one should reasonably know that it will be used'' to take drugs. Headshop owners, insisting that their products are meant for tobacco use, prominently display signs that state that any customer who refers to drug use will be asked to leave.''We kick someone out every day for referring to drugs,'' Kuryla said.Up in Smoke, Yucky's and Adams House, the three headshops that survived gentrification in Coconut Grove, are treated with benign neglect by the police and as endangered species by longtime residents and the business community.''People like the headshops because they are evocative of the Grove's renegade past,'' said Gordon, the chamber president. LOCAL SUPPORT Kuryla, a bodybuilder with a smooth-shaven head, says local business owners support him, even coming in now and then to buy his bongs, which range from $30 to $2,000.''When we first opened up,'' he said, 'I was surprised when old ladies walked in and said, `I want a one-hitter and some 1.5 rolling papers.' We thought our main market would be the University of Miami, but our market is so diverse -- 18 to 75 years old.''To which Keith Stroup, executive director of NORML, a pro-marijuana group, adds: ``Ashcroft probably thinks of an antiwar protester from the Vietnam era smoking pot in a park and burning the flag, but the marijuana-smoking culture has grown up.''DEA ON ITS OWN As for the Miami police, it's not in on Operation Pipe Dream.''We are not working with the DEA on that,'' department spokesman Bill Schwartz said. ``It is really a matter of resources, and our resources are spread thin.''Adams House placed an advertisement in the issue of Fraternal Order of Police magazine scheduled to come out around Christmas. It includes pictures of bongs and a product list.The ad has not been turned down, and they received stick-on badges to place on their car bumpers, said Robin SanMartin, a lawyer and co-owner of Adams House.''We are friends of the police,'' Kuryla said. ``They come by the shop and chat.'' ALTERNATIVE ADS Adams House also advertises in alternative weeklies and strip-club magazines.One such ad features SanMartin in a G-string, a whip flung back over a shoulder rippling with muscle. Along with smoking gear, Adams House sells sex toys, some going as high as $2,000.Buchanan is also going after distributors of pornography, though the laws targeting them, like those against drug paraphernalia, haven't been enforced in over a decade.What this all reflects, NORML's Stroup says, is a culture war, one aimed squarely at people who smoke pot and look at porn. Source: Miami Herald (FL)Author: Robert PlotkinPublished: Monday, November 10, 2003 Copyright: 2003 The Miami HeraldContact: heralded herald.comWebsite: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/ Related Articles & Web Site:NORMLhttp://www.norml.org/Sentence Handed Down in February Bustshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17635.shtmlHe's Taking One Big Hithttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17522.shtmlWashington Cracks Down on Tommy Chonghttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17294.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Post Comment