EDITORIAL

Let’s give this new one a careful try

A Charlotte City Council committee wants the full council to pass an ordinance penalizing the sale of drug paraphernalia. We think the idea is worth a careful try.

The 23 neighborhoods represented by the anti-drug group Fighting Back certainly think so. Council member Malachi Greene proposed the ordinance at their request. At a hearing Monday the group’s director, Hattie Anthony, said, "They (residents) want some of these items removed from their neighborhoods so young people won’t have . . . easy access to them." She said a series of neighborhood meetings had revealed strong support for the measure.

Some others are understandably wary. They point out difficulties in defining what equipment is covered. Pipes, for example, may be put to various uses, most quite legal. Skeptics are worried about the possibilities for selective enforcement.

Perhaps with this in mind, the ordinance would call upon law enforcement officials to consider surrounding circumstances in deciding whether items qualified as drug paraphernalia. Examples might be known drug abuse nearby, or the presence in a store of magazines about marijuana smoking.

In requiring this, the ordinance would mimic a state statute that already outlaws the manufacture or possession of a long list of the items in question.

(Marijuananews note: What this means is that pipe or rolling papers could be sold next to a copy of Cigar Magazine – but not Cannabis Culture or High Times, or The Emperor Wears No Clothes.

This will not limit the availability of pipes or papers, but it will limit the availability of cannabis related books and magazines. It might also limit the sale of pipes and papers that could be used with marijuana, if there is hard drug use in an area. This will do nothing to discourage hard drug use.)

The ordinance would levy a civil penalty of a $100 fine for each offense. Officials say this would be easier to enforce than the state law. They say also that shady operators would fear this more than the prospect of a state misdemeanor charge grinding its way through a court system that is always extremely busy with larger matters.