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Politics
Paraphernalia law approved
If a person should know his products will be used to take drugs, he could be fined $500 or jailed for 60 days.
By WILL VAN SANT
Published October 11, 2006
CLEARWATER - Attorneys in suits and ties or residents dressed Florida casual are usually the ones pleading for a favorable decision before the County Commission. But on Tuesday, it was men with facial piercings, a marijuana legalization advocate and a woman making a distinction between appearance and truth by dressing as a prostitute. They didn't do so well. Over their objections, commissioners unanimously approved a law meant to quash the sale of products often associated with illegal drug use. "I'm still confused," Alan Berger, 51, co-owner of Balls of Steel in Gulfport, said after the vote. "Should I pull everything off the shelves? I guarantee you, we will fight." The new law stems from the work of a Drug Paraphernalia Abatement Task Force that County Commission Chairman Ken Welch helped organize a year ago. Under state law, prosecution for the sale of drug paraphernalia can be difficult. People are guilty only when it can be proved that they knew that the product they sold would be used to ingest drugs. The new law requires no such proof. Now in Pinellas County, those who reasonably should know that what they sold, advertised or manufactured would be used to take illegal drugs will be in violation of the law. Similar to ordinances adopted elsewhere in the country, the new measure is designed to broaden law enforcement's ability to combat the sale of drug paraphernalia. Violators could receive a fine of $500 or 60 days in jail. Repeat offenders could see their businesses closed. Kurt Donely, executive director of Florida's chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said 60 days in jail is an extreme penalty. "I would lose my house, my car," Donely said. "Something would happen to my pets." Tamara Pare, 23, an employee of Purple Haze Tobacco & Accessories in St. Petersburg, spoke while dressed in red heels, a short, peach-colored skirt and a black halter top. Pare said she was a "visual metaphor" that underscored the ridiculousness of the "reasonably should know" standard in the new law. "Many reasonable people today might see me dressed like this and think I'm a prostitute," Pare told the board. Her boss, Purple Haze owner Leo Calzadilla, 45, played a prepared videotape of him speaking from his store. Water pipes lined the shelves behind him. Calzadilla stressed that he was in the business of selling to tobacco enthusiasts. Many of his products, such as detoxification remedies and home drug test kits, are also found in health food stores and pharmacies, he said. It is outrageous to apply the law to him, he said, when mainstream retailers also sell products that can be used to intoxicating effect or turned into paraphernalia. "This ordinance is going to do nothing but tie up our local courts system," Calzadilla said. None of the arguments convinced Welch, who has fought passionately for the law's passage. Still, Welch granted to those in the room that the new measure was not a cure-all for the problem of drug abuse or the availability of drug paraphernalia. "It's not going to solve the entire problem," he said. "It's a step in the right direction." Will Van Sant can be reached at vansant@sptimes.com or 727 445-4166. ON THE WEB The ordinance can be viewed at this Web site: www.pinellas county.org/PDF/Drug-Paraphernalia-ordinance.pdf
[Last modified October 11, 2006, 06:00:57]
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