How's That Prohibition Working Out For You?
From Reason.com:
At 5:30 a.m. on May 10, armed men broke into the bedroom of Kirk Kyle Farrar’s 12 year-old daughter and shook her awake. The men led her downstairs at gunpoint and forced her to lie on the floor next to her mother and father, with her hands behind her head. Another armed man took Farrar’s two-year-old son from his crib, and would not let his parents hold him. “My son screamed for his mother for what seemed like an eternity,” Farrar wrote in an email to friends, obtained by Reason. “I will never forget the hopeless feeling of not being able to comfort my son or daughter.”
The armed men who broke into Farrar’s home were officers with the Meridian, Idaho, Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration. They were executing a federal warrant for Farrar’s arrest for the crime of selling bongs.
Emphasis is mine. This was part of a larger bust of several head shops.
Farrar’s wasn’t the only family traumatized that morning. Agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Idaho National Guard, and four Idaho police departments raided the homes of 13 other headshop owners and employees on May 10. All of the headshops had their inventory seized. One shop lost more than $80,000 worth of merchandise (bongs and pipes marketed as “tobacco water pipes”). Another headshop owner had his and and his employees' vehicles seized.
The investigation into these 13 shops and their employees (two of which are still at large) for selling drug paraphernalia was led by U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson, a Barack Obama appointee. Nine of the shops were also accused of selling "spice," a synthetic alternative to the prohibited and significantly safer drug marijuana.
Really? All this force? All these resources to beat down shop owners for daring to sell pipes?
Do you really need to raid people's homes at 5:30am, point guns at them and their children?
If you support the War on Drugs, doesn't this bother you? Does this seem right to you? Does it seem fair? Does dragging 12-year-olds from their beds at gunpoint because their father sold pipes seem just to you?
Is the War on Marijuana worth it?
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Comments:
Jun '10
Re: How's That Prohibition Working Out For You?
What kind of idiot goes into the drug paraphernalia business while raising small children? That's the question it raises for me.
Nov '11
Re: How's That Prohibition Working Out For You?
Someone who has no moral objection to peaceful (as if there's any other kind) marijuana consumption, and someone who believes that in the United States of America your home won't be invaded by armed men who will hold your 12 year old daughter at gunpoint.
But, I guess he was wrong. I suppose he had it coming. How dare he peacefully trade with others and sell items that could be used to sell marijuana. The nerve of some people!
Aug '11
Re: How's That Prohibition Working Out For You?
Perhaps the President will "evolve" on this issue, too.
Re: How's That Prohibition Working Out For You?
Prior to becoming President, actually, Obama was a rather eloquent advocate of ending this part of the drug war. Once he became president, however, he ramped it up.
His evolution has been disappointing, to say the least.
Re: How's That Prohibition Working Out For You?
Do you wonder whether gun manufacturers should work in that industry while raising children?
Sep '10
Re: How's That Prohibition Working Out For You?
I don't know the details of the laws but normally the "drug paraphernalia business" is legal. That is why these businesses were operating in the first place.
It is quite easy for anyone to fashion a pipe or a bong, so trying to shut down head shops is a ridiculous stretch of government - power assuming the the goal is to discourage drug use. It is harassment for profit. They are just lashing out in utter frustration and exercising power to extort money.
So is your comment meant to imply that the parents deserve this? The parents are putting their kids in a dangerous position because someday, because they are selling bongs, the police might storm through their front door and traumatize their children?
By the same token, what kind of idiot doesn't leave Germany in 1939 if they aren't blonde?
Edited on May 21, 2012 at 3:25pmMay '12
Re: How's That Prohibition Working Out For You?
It is a fair question to ask whether we should be 'fightin the war on drugs' and consider legalizing some of this stuff. I Do Not support even having the debate as long as we are a welfare society because without the consequences of drug use legalizing it becomes problematic.
That debate and question is a long way in the future, for now it is illegal and if someone wants to put their family at risk for selling this stuff the issue is with them. Are law enforcement's tactics heavy handed in this case, maybe, but at the end of the day the head shop owners are selling this stuff and it is against the law.
May '12
Re: How's That Prohibition Working Out For You?
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
Do you wonder whether gun manufacturers should work in that industry while raising children? · 4 minutes ago
Manufacturing, posessing, and carrying a firearm isn't against the law. Not a very good comparison.
Nov '11
Re: How's That Prohibition Working Out For You?
I Do Not support even having the debate as long as we are a welfare society because without the consequences of drug use legalizing it becomes problematic.
Awesome, so the existence of the welfare state, which I'm forced to support but do not benefit from, justifies limiting my freedom?
May '12
Re: How's That Prohibition Working Out For You?
Fred Cole
I Do Not support even having the debate as long as we are a welfare society because without the consequences of drug use legalizing it becomes problematic.
Awesome, so the existence of the welfare state, which I'm forced to support but do not benefit from, justifies limiting my freedom? · 3 minutes ago
Fred, I hope it doesn't limit your freedom.
If someone wants to use what are now illegal drugs for their recreation I say have at it. Unfortunately if/when that use turns into abuse and that person loses a job they sign up for 99+ weeks of unemployment, when they can't afford groceries get on food stamps, if the party results in an unplanned pregnancy then sign up for WIC, etc.
If someone wants to use them recreationally, it is none of my business, they should be free to do so, but when the party goes up in smoke please don't send me the tab for the consequences.
End the welfare state, establish personal resposibility, and then let's have the debate to end the war on drugs, I may even be the first signature on your petition sir.
Nov '11
Re: How's That Prohibition Working Out For You?
Your logic is the same that underpins both the seatbelt law, the individual insurance mandate and NY's fireworks ban:
Because some people are irresponsible, and that irresponsibility imposes costs on society at large, we must force everyone, even responsible people, to act "correctly."
Sep '10
Re: How's That Prohibition Working Out For You?
BrentB67
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
Do you wonder whether gun manufacturers should work in that industry while raising children? · 4 minutes ago
Manufacturing, posessing, and carrying a firearm isn't against the law. Not a very good comparison.
It depends - just like in this case. One day it's legal, the next it's quasi-leagal, that is tolerated but there is state hostility, and then some attorney or sheriff is running for re-election and finds a loophole.
But don't forget, these people have not yet been convicted of anything and they were truamatized unneccesarily. So, until they have been found guilty of some legal transgression, the "I guess they got what is coming to them" crowd is showing their colors.
You guys aren't making a very good case for yourselves.
May '12
Re: How's That Prohibition Working Out For You?
Franco
BrentB67
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
Do you wonder whether gun manufacturers should work in that industry while raising children? · 4 minutes ago
Manufacturing, posessing, and carrying a firearm isn't against the law. Not a very good comparison.
You guys aren't making a very good case for yourselves. · 1 minute ago
Mollie, I don't think there is anything that is questionable about the legality of manufacturing, owning or posessing firearms.
I agree with you that there is much unresolved about the legality of certain drugs including for medicinal purposes and the paraphernalia associated with them. There is nothing unresolved about the 2nd amendment short of state licensing concealed carry permits.
My only point is that until the ambiguity in the drug laws are resolved there are more prudent ways to make a living in retail than selling these items and putting your family at risk.
Jun '10
Re: How's That Prohibition Working Out For You?
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
Do you wonder whether gun manufacturers should work in that industry while raising children? · 28 minutes ago
If I was manufacturing guns, there's no reason to assume that my customers--the people I come into contact with everyday--are criminals. A few gun buyers may be, but that's not the norm. If your business is making bongs, who are your customers? The norm is that they are criminals.
Edited on May 21, 2012 at 3:53pmMay '10
Re: How's That Prohibition Working Out For You?
Forgive my drug paraphernalia ignorance, but is there any legitimate purpose to the products sold?
You don't stop the sale of cameras because they could be used in pornography and you don't stop the sale of condoms because they could be used in a rape.
What's the legitimacy defense here?
Dec '10
Re: How's That Prohibition Working Out For You?
And that's why my question the other day is so important. If people can be trusted to think for themselves and act toward their own best interest without infringing on the ability of others to do the same, then the entire war on drugs makes absolutely no sense at all. If, however, people will inevitibly abuse their liberty and destroy the liberty of others in the process, then such government interventions into our lives and bedrooms is warranted. I can't get off this fence. I know what I would hope for humanity, but I also know what I see every day.
Dec '10
Re: How's That Prohibition Working Out For You?
etoiledunord
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
If I was manufacturing guns, there's no reason to assume that my customers--the people I come into contact with everyday--are criminals. A few gun buyers may be, but that's not the norm. If you're business is making bongs, who are your customers? The norm is that they are criminals. · 0 minutes ago
What causes you to believe that this level of force is required? This guy is not a drug lord.
Edited on May 21, 2012 at 4:16pmNov '11
Re: How's That Prohibition Working Out For You?
EJ, they are sold as tobacco pipes. You can smoke tobacco out if them.
Dec '10
Re: How's That Prohibition Working Out For You?
I smoke a lot of pipe tobacco, I do none of it through a "water pipe." Just because they technically could be used for legitimate purposes doesn't mean they ever are. I'm with you on the libertarian argument, but pretending there is a currently legal purpose for having a bong is just plain dishonest.
May '12
Re: How's That Prohibition Working Out For You?
I don't understand Libertarians obsession with legalizing marijuana. Is the world really such a bad place because buying and selling pot is less than risk-free? As far a as I'm concerned putting some obstacles in the way of people who feel they must have this vice is well worth it, if for no other reason than to teach people to respect the fact that pot, like all other intoxicants, can cause lots of problems. The idea that pot use only affects the user is just not true. As for this loser who put his family at risk, if you want to hide illegal activity in the home where your children sleep, you are responsible for them getting a taste of law enforcement. It doesn't matter that you think the laws are illegitimate, you've put your family at risk so that you can exercise your right to civil disobedience, that was your choice, not the cops.