City Bans Sale of Drug Items
May 3, 2006
Saint Paul Pioneer Press
It's now illegal in Hastings to sell or purchase bongs or hashish heads,
water pipes, roach clips, cocaine spoons, chillums, and a whole host of items
associated with drug culture.
The City Council on Monday approved an ordinance prohibiting the "sale or
delivery of drug paraphernalia," modeled after suggested language from the
federal Drug Enforcement Administration and laws in effect in a few larger
cities in the Twin Cities. Paraphernalia, according to the ordinance, includes
any equipment used to grow, harvest, manufacture, conceal, refine, test, inject,
ingest or inhale narcotics.
City Council Member Anthony Alongi pursued adding the new law to Hastings'
statutes after a gas station near Hastings High School refused to stop selling
bongs, or water pipes commonly associated with smoking marijuana. A manager was
later arrested and convicted of dealing methamphetamines from the store, which
has reportedly stopped selling bongs.
To prove that questionable equipment is truly drug-related, authorities can
use the seller's or buyer's criminal history record, among other clues.
Violating the new law would be a misdemeanor offense, according to a memo from
City Attorney Shawn M. Moynihan, who prepared the ordinance.
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