Pubdate: Tue, 12 Aug 2003
Source: Associated Press (Wire)
Copyright: 2003 Associated Press
Author: Dan Nephin, Associated Press Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/paraphernalia (paraphernalia)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/ashcroft.htm (Ashcroft, John)

PROSECUTORS TARGETING DRUG PARAPHERNALIA, OBSCENITY CASES

PITTSBURGH -- For years, so-called head shops and Internet retailers have 
sold pipes billed as being for legal tobacco products but mostly used, 
authorities say, to smoke marijuana.

Likewise, hardcore pornographic videos have been sold through adult 
bookstores and the Internet.

For years, neither manufacturers, retailers or buyers had much concern 
about the possibility of arrest. That's been changing, however, as the 
Department of Justice has begun cracking down on both industries, and the 
U.S. Attorney for the western district of Pennsylvania has been playing a 
key role.

Mary Beth Buchanan led "Operation Pipe Dreams," in which at least 55 
people, including actor and comedian Tommy Chong, were accused of 
trafficking in illegal drug paraphernalia.

Chong, 65, pleaded guilty in federal court in May to conspiring to sell 
drug paraphernalia and is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 11.

Last week, Buchanan announced the indictment of a California couple on 
charges of distributing pornography that violates federal obscenity laws.

"She seems to be in great favor with the administration," said Stanton D. 
Levenson, Chong's Pittsburgh attorney, who called Buchanan an aggressive 
prosecutor. She was confirmed in September 2001 and in April was appointed 
to chair a committee advising U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft on issues 
ranging from budgets to crime-fighting policies.

Buchanan declined to discuss her political philosophy Monday, but said she 
believed enforcement of federal drug paraphernalia and obscenity laws had 
been lax in the past.

Buchanan said every U.S. attorney was asked by the department to reduce 
drug trafficking and drug use and her strategy was to target paraphernalia 
makers and retailers. Obscenity, she said, has "always been an important 
priority" for Ashcroft.

Obscenity cases were little prosecuted during the last administration and 
Ashcroft has made it known that he would step up prosecutions, said Joseph 
D. Obenberger, an adult entertainment industry and First Amendment lawyer 
in Chicago.

Buchanan, who also serves on the Advisory Committee's subcommittee on child 
exploitation and obscenity, said she was interested in the obscenity case 
and coordinated the investigation with her counterpart in California and 
U.S. Postal Service investigators.

Louis H. Sirkin, the attorney for Robert Zicari and Janet Romano, and their 
company, Extreme Associates, called the prosecution a test case and said he 
believes the federal obscenity statute is unconstitutional, based on the 
recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down a Texas sodomy law. He said 
adults should be able to view any sexually explicit material they wish as 
long as it involves consenting adults.

Levenson said there seems to be a trend toward prosecuting cases outside a 
defendant's home jurisdiction. In the Chong and Extreme Associates cases, 
investigators in the Pittsburgh area ordered items and had them shipped to 
local addresses.

"The jurisdictional boundaries seem to be breaking down quite quickly," 
Levenson said. "The Internet has a lot to do with that."

Buchanan denied the suggestion that she was shopping for a conservative 
jury in the obscenity case, saying the activities depicted on Extreme 
Associates' videos, including rape and murder, would be found to be obscene 
anywhere.

"The whole point of this case is, there are limits to what can be produced 
and sold, and this material exceeds those limits," Buchanan said.
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