A group at the forefront of the smoke shop controversy is targeting Pacific Beach stores, claiming their proximity to La Jolla’s youth is dangerous.
“In fewer than five miles, there are 16 smoke shops,” said Kathleen Lippett, MPH, ATOD Prevention Specialist with SAY (Social Advocates for Youth). “Even though they don’t have smoke shops in La Jolla, kids today are mobile.”
SAY took its cause to La Jolla’s planning group and then the town council, where a motion passed 14-1-1 to send a letter to the mayor, the San Diego City Council and the city attorney, asking them to take another look at area head shops.
According to La Jolla Town Council President Darcy Ashley, the council plans to send a letter asking City Attorney Michael Aguirre, along with the city council and the mayor, to enforce a state regulation that SAY members insist makes selling most items inside smoke shops illegal.
They are not alone.
In February, the College Area Community Council sent a letter to Mayor Jerry Sanders, asking him to direct both the chief of police and the city attorney to “take action” to enforce an ordinance, and to direct their focus onto marijuana.
In March, the Pacific Beach Town Council also sent a letter to Sanders, requesting his “help in stopping the sale of illegal drug paraphernalia within businesses in our community.” Pacific Beach has the highest concentration of smoke shops in the city, the council wrote. That sentiment seemed to resonate to La Jolla this month as SAY members used that phrase during the La Jolla planning group meeting.
SAY’s Lisa Silverman stood in front of La Jolla’s planning group, holding a broken bong and a pipe as she told the group that her concern was for La Jolla youth. They can travel to “our neighbor” in Pacific Beach and buy items like this, she said.
Last November, Aguirre responded to concerns from groups regarding sales of drug paraphernalia in local smoke shops. He sent owners cease-and-desist letters, warning them to stop selling methamphetamine and crack pipes but ignored pipes that some groups said could be used for marijuana.
Now SAY group members said they will send Aguirre another letter; targeting additional items related to marijuana. Representatives from SAY attended local planning groups, pointing out what they say is a law prohibiting the sale of pipes and other paraphernalia. While SAY members said smoke shop owners sell marijuana pipes, the owners said they are within their rights.
The California Health and Safety Code (11014.5) provides “clear definitions of drug paraphernalia used to smoke marijuana,” the CACC wrote. But while the code does list bongs and other paraphernalia, it also has other conditions describing what constitutes illegal paraphernalia, including the “national and local advertising concerning its use,” the “manner in which the object is displayed for sale” and other conditions that have led smoke shop owners to sell bongs as “water pipes” for tobacco use. Those conditions include:
“Statements by an owner or by anyone in control of the object concerning its use.”
“Instructions, oral or written, provided with the object concerning its use for ingesting, inhaling, or otherwise introducing a controlled substance into the human body.”
Smoke shop owners said they have strict rules for their customers. At one smoke shop on Garnet Avenue in Pacific Beach, the worker said he checks all identification, and no one under 18 is allowed in the back with the pipes. If customers talk about drugs, he said, they are asked to leave.
“We have a three-strikes policy,” he said. “We ask them not to [talk about marijuana] but if they keep doing it, they have to go.”
“It doesn’t matter what they say it’s for, it’s on the list for illegal drug paraphernalia,” Silverman said. She called smoke shops selling tobacco pipes the “tobacco myth.”
“When kids see these stores, they get a mixed message,” Lippitt said.
Workers and owners inside smoke shops disagree. They maintain there are rules and regulations that are strictly followed. In determining whether an item is drug paraphernalia, Health and Safety Code Section 11014.5 reads, “Whether the owner, or anyone in control of the object, is a legitimate supplier of like or related items to the community, such as a licensed distributor or dealer of tobacco products.”
One worker said that he shouldn’t be prosecuted for selling a tobacco pipe if a customer smokes something else out of it.