Alaska, Anchorage

[palmspringsbum]

Court sinks drug paraphernalia law
'SO VAGUE': State Court of Appeals finds city's standards impossible to uphold.

By KYLE HOPKINS
Anchorage Daily News

Published: April 14, 2006
Last Modified: April 14, 2006 at 03:11 AM


Bongs atop Anchorage's coffee tables and store shelves are, for the moment, safe from seizure.

The state Court of Appeals has ruled the city's drug paraphernalia laws are unconstitutional and could be used to charge people with possession of not only marijuana pipes but items like spoons and blenders.

In an April 7 opinion, the court said parts of the current rules are "so vague" they can't be understood or upheld.

The ordinance was adopted by the Anchorage Assembly in 2000.

Chris Main, a store owner who was convicted and fined $2,500 under the rules, agreed the law is too broad.

"At what point do the products I sell become illegal? No gun has ever pulled a trigger. No pipe has ever loaded itself," he said.

Main describes his Midtown store, Really Neat Stuff, as a gift and gag shop that makes about a quarter of its money selling "smoking accessories."

Main put pictures of the police raid on his store's Web site, but despite his past conviction, he says the city needs some type of workable drug paraphernalia law.

The ruling leaves the city a few options. It can petition the Alaska Supreme Court to decide the case, try to rewrite the rules so they stand up to future court challenges, or do nothing.

City Attorney Fred Boness said the city has up to 15 days to decide whether to try and take the case to a higher court. That decision hasn't been made yet.

The ruling stems from a 2002 case involving Douglas Myers, owner of The Black Market downtown, who was charged with selling drug paraphernalia.

An employee at The Black Market refused on Thursday to comment on the ruling and referred questions to Myers, who could not be reached for comment.

Municipal Prosecutor John McConnaughy said Myers' case was a test and the city was waiting to see the outcome of the appeal before going after other people suspected of selling or storing drug paraphernalia.

One problem the court found with the paraphernalia laws was that they could apply to pharmacists as well as potheads. The rules outlaw storage of things like scales and syringes, regardless of whether that storage is lawful, the court said.

In a dissenting opinion, Judge David Stewart wrote that Myers' inventory had the "objective characteristics or design" that indicated they were intended to be used for drugs.

Police spokesman Lt. Paul Honeman said the current law is clear and that police don't arbitrarily arrest people for owning household or medical items. "We use what we would consider the commonsense approach," he said.



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Daily News reporter Kyle Hopkins can be reached at khopkins@adn.com.