December 29, 2001

By Rich McKay, Sentinel Staff Writer

Orlando Sentinel

Danny Black of Shoreham, N.Y., pressed his nose to the glass window of Sportwear USA, ogling the colorful array of glass pipes -- some 2 feet tall -- billed for tobacco only. But few are fooled.

"It's for marijuana, man," he said. "Getting high. I don't do cigarettes." Black is uncommonly candid about his intentions. The 19-year-old college sophomore on Christmas break said he wants to inhale, get high and then get the munchies.

Black wanted to get an exotic tobacco pipe fast. Daytona Beach City Commission recently took a hard line on the pipes. They have banned the display and sale of them, and they threaten fines that could run from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars.

It's part of the commission's effort to clean up the city's image of a party-till-you-puke town.

"These things are drug paraphernalia, and there's no question about that," said Mayor Bud Asher. "We're taking a stand to do our best to keep our young people drug-free."

A similar tactic is being used on the city's adult strip clubs and video stores, with many thousands of dollars in potential fines accumulating. But the effectiveness remains to be seen, as the business owners are fighting the city in court.

Asher said the new ordinance relies on an existing Florida statute that bans drug paraphernalia.

The statute specifically bans: "Objects used, intended for use, or designed for use in ingesting, inhaling, or otherwise introducing cannabis (*marijuana) into the human body."

"Bongs" -- slang for any container used to smoke marijuana, filtering the smoke through water -- are outlawed in the same state law.

Not so fast. There's a loophole.

If you use only tobacco in the items, or even use them as paperweights, they're perfectly legal, said Sgt. Al Tolley of the Daytona Beach Police Department.

It's what goes in there, or your intent, that's at issue.

All the stores the Sentinel found selling the pipes have signs specifically stating that the objects are for use with tobacco.

You walk into the stores and you'll see big signs that declare the items are for use in tobacco only.

But undercutting that declaration is the fact that many of the pipes are individually marked with the numbers "4:20"-- slang for getting high.

Other communities across the nation are taking similar hard lines. Earlier this month, the city of Chicago banned the sale of flavored cigarette paper that could be used to hide the smell of marijuana.

This summer the state of Michigan along with the city of Chicago banned the sale of 4-inch glass pipes that can be used as crack pipes -- deeming them drug paraphernalia.

In Milwaukee -- while not banning the items -- district attorney asked merchants to sign good-faith agreements not to sell the items, saying proving intent would be too difficult.

Asher said his city is ready to fight -- and fight hard.

"I'm no goodie-two-shoes, but this is something we don't need or want in Daytona Beach."