At the Sunny Market in the west Minnehaha neighborhood, the glass pipes, bongs and digital scales are in a case at the front counter.
Signs warn customers they must be at least 18 years old to purchase the items, and that the items are for tobacco use only.
Because so many tobacco users want brightly colored glass pipes, right?
Right?
“I’ve seized hundreds of those things,” Clark County Sheriff Garry Lucas said Wednesday. “I’ve never seen tobacco residue.”
Lucas weighed in during a work session with Clark County commissioners on a proposed ordinance that would take the “but it’s for tobacco” loophole out of a 1998 state law prohibiting the sale of drug paraphernalia.
The tools are used for marijuana and methamphetamine, commissioners were told.
Clark County Sheriff’s Sgt. Shane Gardner said if he arrested someone with a glass pipe for possession of drug paraphernalia, a defense attorney would argue the pipe could be used for tobacco.
A new county ordinance could follow a 2005 Pierce County statute, which prohibits the sale of drug paraphernalia and includes the line “whether it can be useful for non-drug related purposes or not.”
It would apply only to stores where minors are allowed.
Anti-drug organizations including the Hands Across the Bridge Project, PREVENT! Coalition, Sea Mar Health Clinic and Lifeline Connections support putting greater restrictions on where drug paraphernalia can be sold.
In addition to enticing youth, the items can serve as a trigger for recovering addicts and send the message that the community considers illegal drug use to be acceptable.
Bronson Potter, the county’s chief civil deputy prosecutor, told commissioners he would draft a proposed ordinance that would make it a civil infraction to sell the paraphernalia in stores where minors are allowed.
Any ordinance would have to be voted on after a public hearing.
Thomas Breitenbauch from Hands Across the Bridge (a group for recovering addicts) and Jenna Grillo, a volunteer, did the presentation Wednesday for commissioners.
“I don’t know anyone who uses a bong for tobacco,” Breitenbauch said, as commissioners saw photographs of bongs and scales on display in a Clark County store.
And tobacco smokers use wooden, not glass, pipes, he said.
Plus, “who uses scales to measure tobacco?” he asked.
Commissioner Tom Mielke questioned why the county would allow the sale of drug paraphernalia at all.
Commissioner Steve Stuart said he was not interested in trying to prohibit the sales at adult-only businesses because the state does allow marijuana for medicinal purposes.
Stuart and Commissioner Marc Boldt agreed, however, that the drug paraphernalia should not be accessible to minors.
Sondra Storm of PREVENT! said a survey showed 22 stores in Clark County sell drug paraphernalia, or approximately 16 percent of convenience stores.
Commissioners emphasized to Potter that they did not want to make the sale of drug paraphernalia a crime, but rather a civil infraction.
The state allows counties to charge violators a $250 fine.
While a county ordinance would apply only to unincorporated Clark County, the city of Vancouver years ago adopted the state’s civil penalty.
Vancouver City Attorney Ted Gathe attended the work session, as did city councilor Bart Hansen.
Stuart suggested the city adopt a stricter ordinance (one that eliminates the tobacco exception) and enforce it.
He said he’s seen the pipes sold at stores near his home in west Vancouver.
Lucas suggested since pipes are being sold at only approximately two dozen businesses, store owners could be educated about any potential change in the law before citations were issued.
“Ninety-nine percent of the time that works,” Lucas said.
Mielke asked whether the county could be in violation of a new law for its needle exchange program, but was told clean-needle programs aimed at stopping the spread of disease are exempt.
Boldt said the convenience store owners he’s spoken to have not objected to the proposed change in law.
At the Sunny Market, owner Yan Chiu said she will put something else in the front counter case, next to the lottery tickets, if the commissioners go through with the code change.
