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YO_ Steve 12-23-96  00:15 DRUG PARAPHERNALIA Dennis
Steve, feel free to drop this one on Storm Lake
or publish their email and I'll send it.
 SR> Newspaper Editorial
 SR> ===================
 SR> Why banning the bong is the right thing to do
 SR> Storm Lake (Ia) Pilot-Tribune Commentary 12/21/96, pg 4A
 SR> Despite the spray of protests with various degrees of authenticity
 SR> from one retailer, area community Spencer should be congratulated for
 SR> voting to ban sales of some 20 items commonly used in the preparation,
 SR> distri- bution, consumption or concealing drugs.
Congratulatons!  I can't wait to see the video of goose steeping youth
on parade.  Obey Obey Obey without question.  The parents of Spencer must
be pretty lousy if they need the city government's help in their 
childrearing.  All pressed out to Mil-spec.  This is totalitarian,
fully authoritarian, it sounds like Pinochet.  Land of the Free?
 SR> Rainy Day Music co-owner Steve Ross says the vote is "anti-business."
 SR> He says that although his store openly deals in some of the drug para-
 SR> pernalia-in fact, the items make up a "large portion of he store's
 SR> income," according to a Spencer newspaper report-he doesn't "endorse"
 SR> drug use. 
 SR> What?  And we suppose Regis doesn't endorse Kathie Lee.  Is a dealer
 SR> in drug paraphernalia so much different that (sic) a dealer in drugs?
I would say that Steve Ross is a rabid anti prohibitionist, good parent,
and a great American.  This war on drugs gives some people a lot more 
balls than they posess in reality, and your attacks upon the character
of Mr. Ross must be seen for the propaganda driven jingoism that they
constitute.
 SR> The businessman also protests that 1. we don't need more regulations-
 SR> generally true; 2. that such a law would hurt business-darn, the bong
 SR> and roach slip market might slip on us; 3. that banning legal sale of
 SR> drug use items will just create a "black market" for them-granted.
 SR> We faced a similar issue several years ago, as efforts started to make
 SR> clean needles available to drug addicts.  This newspaper took a lot of
 SR> heat for supporting that concept, but our hope is that such an effort
 SR> will help us to identify and help addicts, who would otherwise be at
 SR> the heart of spread of AIDS from dirty needles.  If a clean needle buys
 SR> us a little time to try to save someone, and the other option is death
 SR> in a geometric and contageous progression, that seems to us very
 SR> different that (sic) regulating for-profit sale of items used in the
 SR> drug trade. 
 SR> The one Spencer city council member who voted against the
 SR> paraphernalia ban is an attorney who feels such a local law is
 SR> unnecessary and said he has seen no evidence that prohibiting the sale
 SR> of drug paraphernalia will prevent drug abuse.  Whoever said it would?
 SR> Frankly, we have trouble following that logic.
 SR> Area communities invest vast amounts of effort and money every year to
 SR> educate against drug abuse, enforce drug trafficking laws, and try to
 SR> heal some of the societal damage done by drug abuse on so many levels.
The problems are created by the black market, which cannot exist without
the prohibition.
 SR> To have drug paraphernalia sold openly is a slap in the face to all
 SR> who are involved in those efforts.  We believe that communities do have
 SR> the right to play a role in deciding what services they do and do not
 SR> want for the future of that community.  They may not want a porno store
 SR> across from their school, and they may not want bongs sold from glass
 SR> cases on their main streets.  Don't they have "rights" to speak up,
 SR> too? 
They have the right to stay on the sidewalk.
 SR> Wise businesspeople will do what Ross says he will-comply with the
 SR> wishes of his community (although in this case, it will apparently come
 SR> after "one hell of a fire sale" on such items before the Spencer
 SR> ordinance can be passed.)
 SR> No, it would be utterly foolish to believe that stopping the few
 SR> northwest Iowa sources of visible, legal sales of drug paraphernalia is
 SR> going to solve our youth drug problems, or even make a dent in them. 
 SR> It does however send a message that we are serious about our
 SR> communities' stance toward drugs and are not willing to look the other
 SR> way for those who would take advantage of others' addictions for
 SR> profit. 
 SR> This kind of action is no replacement for education, prevention and
 SR> treat- ment programs.  But it doesn't hurt.
It does however send a message that we are intolerant.
 SR> If many more communities follow Spencer's lead and make it stick, we
 SR> might not convert drug addicts, but we may make it bit (sic) less
 SR> convenient for others to start.  And we may appear a little less the
 SR> hypocrites-preaching about the dangers of drug abuse to our kids while
 SR> they can legally shop for drug paraphernalia in our own hometowns.
What I am personally hoping for is rioting in the streets replete with
Rocks, Bricks, and Bottles. This is a repugnant episode to happen 
in the United States.  But our freedom will not be wrenched from 
us, our liberty will not be denied without a struggle.
I have a right to grow what I want in my garden, smoke what
I want in my pipe.  It is inalienable and our governance is
in place to protect it.
j
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