Pubdate: Thu, 21 Aug 2014
Source: Pike County Courier (PA)
Copyright: 2014 Straus Newspapers
Contact:  http://www.strausnews.com/pike_county_courier/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4456
Author: Nathan Mayberg

PARAPHERNALIA PENALTY CAN BE WORSE

Paraphernalia Shops Abound In Pike, And So Do Arrests: Plastic Bags,
Lighters And Wrapping Paper Can Also Lead To Charges

MATAMORAS - Those plastic ziplock bags at the supermarket might look
harmless. But in Pennsylvania, they can lead to serious criminal
charges if found alongside a stash of drugs.

In The Keystone State, any wrapper believed to be connected to drug
use or storage can lead to misdemeanor drug paraphernalia charges that
potentially carry higher sentences than the drugs themselves. The
dispositions in Pike County Court that appear regularly in the Courier
usually contain such charges.

Defense attorney Matt McClenahen said he'd like to see the drug
paraphernalia law go.

"I would just get rid of it outright," he said.

A heroin charge is serious enough, he said. "Do we need to have a
separate charge for the mirror - and the rubber band?"

Plus, he said, it's legal to sell the items that people can go to jail
for. In fact, Pike County is chock-a-block with smoke shops that sell
a wide array of pipes, bongs, hookahs, and rolling papers.

"Everyone knows that nobody is buying water pipes and bowls to smoke
tobacco," said McClenahen.

Drug paraphernalia is defined as anything intended to aid in ingesting
or injecting drugs into the body. "It's a pretty broad category," he
said. "A regular spoon in your kitchen can be used to eat food or heat
up heroin."

For example, McClenahen said, if you just bought a pipe but haven't
used it yet, but are found in your vehicle with marijuana, you could
be charged with possession of drug paraphernalia.

Pipes, flavored cigars, wrapping papers, spoons and rubber bands are
all items that can potentially be used for drugs. They are 100 percent
legal to possess - unless attached to a drug offense. If the maximum
penalty for possessing less than 30 grams, or about an ounce, of
marijuana is 30 days in jail and a $500 fine, paraphernalia possession
can result in up to one year in jail and a $12,500 fine. Prosecutors
and judges have leeway in sentencing.

McClenahen represents a lot of Penn State students. He said first-time
offenders are typically given an opportunity to expunge the charge
from their record if they complete a diversionary program.

Sheriff: Shops 'not good for youth'

In Matamoras, a one-mile stretch of tobacco road known as Pennsylvania
Avenue, features many stores focused on the sale of tobacco. Some also
sell pipes and bongs.

At Smoker's Choice, large glass bongs sell for as much as $300, while
pipes go for as much as $40. At On the Road Tobacco, small bongs sell
for $15 to $40. Smokin' Joe's sells mostly cigarettes but also small
pipes and hookahs.

The glass bongs can legally only be used for tobacco. You have to be
18 to enter Smoker's Choice.

"How many people do you see with a five-foot glass bong, with a $200
to $250 (cost), smoking tobacco?" Pike County Sherif Philip Bueki
asked. "When you see the ornate pipes with seven or eight lines, that
is pushing the envelope."

But, Bueki said, "We still live in America."

He said hookah and cigar use is "way up," and the use of pipes and
bongs has "skyrocketed" as the potency of marijuana has increased.

"By barring all of these things, is it really going to end drug use?"
Bueki said. "I think not. You can make pipes out of anything."

State Police Corporal Bryon Dixon said drug paraphernalia arrests can
include lighters, bags, grinders, glass pipes, wrapping papers,
flavored cigars, and hypodermic needles, which are used by diabetics
as well as heroin users.

"Typically there's always some type of drug paraphernalia" during a
drug arrest, "whether it's packaging, a pipe, a needle, rolling
papers," said State Police Sergeant Brian Vennie.

Most paraphernalia charges are misdemeanors. Common paraphernalia
arrests are for packaging materials, envelopes and plastic baggies,
Vennie said.

"Is it illegal to carry a lighter? No," said Vennie. "If you're using
it to light a spoon? Yes."

He said the state police often does field tests on the items based on
their training, although some can be sent out for lab testing.

Vennie said there has to be a connection visible to the officer that
the item was used for drugs.

"There's gotta be that nexus," he said.

Bueki agrees. "You have to prove that the device was used for an
illegal purpose," he said.

His department will typically either do field tests or send the
devices out for testing.

"We know what marijuana smells like," said Bueki.

His officers will often find drug paraphernalia when people come into
the courthouse and empty their pockets. During traffic stops, deputies
sometimes see drugs or drug paraphernalia "in plain view."

"People just have it right there," Bueki said.

Bueki said the prevalence of shops selling paraphernalia in Pike
County is "not good for the youth of the area."

Vennie said he couldn't comment on behalf of the state police about
whether stores should be able to sell items commonly used for drugs.

Bueki has been a DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) officer for 30
years, teaching fifth graders the dangers of drug use at local
schools. He thinks the use of tobacco and alcohol among young people
is down but that heroin is epidemic. Heroin used is aided by its cheap
availability, he said, while "marijuana is very expensive."

Smoke shops are prevalent in Matamoras and other Pike locations
because they're near the New York border and interstate, bringing in
high traffic from out-of-state where cigarettes and tobacco can be
twice the price.

At Tri-State Tobacco, manager Vindu Singh said 70 percent of his
customers are from New York. Customers can buy a box of Montclair
cigarettes for $3.94, pure tobacco for $8.79 per pound, or rolling
tobacco for $21.99 per pound - about half of what they cost in New
York.

But the store doesn't sell the bongs or blunts customarily associated
with marijuana use. He said the store's owners "don't want to promote"
drug use.

He has seen the large displays of such items at other
stores.

"That's too much," he said.  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D