More anti-hookah insanity.

[Teufelhund]

This is part of an article I ran across recently while searching for stuff about hookahs. It was talking about the possibility of  the Federal Prosecutor (another government cowboy with too much power) in Des Moines, Iowa going after Hookah Bros. and others for conspiricy to manufacture and distribute drug paraphernalia. It's the part describing what is considered a "bong" under federal law. (per U.S. v. Pipes and Things - 1994)


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Unlike many state and local paraphernalia statutes, which allow
for a subjective, contextual interpretation of whether a given object is indeed
drug paraphernalia--sometimes a knife is only a knife--federal law is black and
white:

"ANY device which HISTORICALLY has been used for smoking cannabis and/or opiates" is a bong.

There is also no distinction made in the federal law
concerning ethnicity or race (ie: You are of Middle Eastern descent so
it's okay to own a hookah as long as you only smoke tobacco in it.) possession of a bong is
a federal offense, and so, of course, is the sale, manufacturing, or
importing of a bong, or conspiracy to do so. It can get you three years
in federal prison - for each device sold, manufactured or imported. And
it doesn't matter if the bong has never been used, if it has only been
used for smoking legal tobacco products or if it is a jewel-encrusted
work of art; having one in your posession is a crime. And to make
things even rosier, since 1990 federal law has made manufacturers,
importers and distributors who are SUSPECTED- no, not indicted, not
even charged, just suspected - drug-paraphernalia violators subject to
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) and money
laundering charges as well as seizure of property under the asset
forfeiture laws.

[Bane]

People are so ignorant.  If the guy'd ever smoked a hookah before, he'd probably flippin' own one himself.

[JaviFSU]

ignorance and intolerance are the two biggest social problems in the US IMO. 
Following that sort of rubric it would make sense that diabetics can't
have syringes to inject insulin because they could potentially be used
to inject heroin or steroids, coffee grinders should also be illegal
because many use them to break up marijuana, spoons should be banned
because they are used for heroin also, and so on.  Ridiculous 

[brother812]

found this on MSN
[url="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9829876/"]http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9829876/[/url]