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What is drug
paraphernalia?
Drug paraphernalia
is any legitimate equipment, product, or material that is modified for
making, using, or concealing illegal drugs such as cocaine, heroin,
marijuana, and methamphetamine. Drug paraphernalia generally falls into
two categories:
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User-specific
products
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Dealer-specific products
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User-specific
products are marketed to drug users to assist them in taking or
concealing illegal drugs. These products include certain pipes, smoking
masks, bongs, cocaine freebase kits, marijuana grow kits, roach clips,
and items such as hollowed out cosmetic cases or fake pagers used to
conceal illegal drugs.
Dealer-specific
products are used by drug traffickers for preparing illegal drugs for
distribution at the street level. Items such as scales, vials, and
baggies fall into this category. Drug paraphernalia does not include any
items traditionally used with tobacco, like pipes and rolling papers.
What the law
says
Under Health and
Safety Title 35, Controlled Substance, Drug, Device and Cosmetic Act,
Prohibited acts; penalties
The delivery of,
possession with intent to deliver, or manufacture with intent to
deliver, drug paraphernalia, knowing, or under circumstances where one
reasonably should know, that it would be used to plant, propagate,
cultivate, grow, harvest, manufacture, compound, convert, produce,
process, prepare, test, analyze, pack, repack, store, contain, conceal,
inject, ingest, inhale or otherwise introduce into the human body a
controlled substance in violation of this act.
Drug
Paraphernalia Sales
With the rise of
the drug culture in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, the
country began to see the appearance of “head shops,” which were stores
that sold a wide range of drug paraphernalia. While some of the
paraphernalia was crude and home-made, much was being commercially
manufactured to cater to a fast-growing market. Enterprising individuals
even sold items openly in the street, until anti-paraphernalia laws in
the 1980s eventually ended such blatant sales. Today, law enforcement
faces another challenge. With the advent of the Internet, criminals have
greatly expanded their illicit sales to a worldwide market for drug
paraphernalia. For example, in a recent law enforcement effort,
Operation Pipedreams, the 18 companies targeted accounted for more than
a quarter of a billion dollars in retail drug paraphernalia sales
annually. Typically, such illicit businesses operate retail stores as
well as websites posing as retailers of legitimate tobacco accessories
when in reality the products are intended for the illegal drug trade.
What You Should
Know
Drug paraphernalia
is often marketed specifically to youth—with colorful logos, celebrity
pictures, and designs like smiley faces on the products—the items are
meant to look harmless and belie the dangers of taking controlled
substances. Other paraphernalia like magic markers can conceal pipes,
and small, hand-painted blown glass items look more like pretty trinkets
than pipes or stash containers. Parents need to be aware that these
kinds of products often conceal drug use.
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