[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish deputies arrest 9 convenience store clerks caught selling

[Westley Annis]

Wow they don't something better to do than arrest convenience store workers
on this crap?  How is that making the world a safer place?  I agree stores
shouldn't sell things like this, but a whole "Operation" on pipes?
Ludicrous.

B
 
==========================================
	
	St. Bernard Parish deputies arrest 9 convenience store clerks caught
selling
	"crack pipes" on tape
	by Chris Kirkham, The Times-Picayune 
	Friday May 29, 2009, 3:27 PM
	The man walks into Amin's Quick Stop in Chalmette, buys two pieces
of fried
	chicken and casually asks the store clerk for "two crack pipes and
chore
	boy." 
	
	The clerk complies, hands over the two glass pipes and copper
cleaning
	sponge, and the man walks out of the store. 
	
	The scene was captured on camera a month ago and the purchaser was
an
	undercover informant for the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office.
That clerk
	and eight others were arrested Thursday and booked with distribution
of drug
	paraphernalia by the St. Bernard Sheriff's Office, after the
informant
	compiled weeks worth of video in an operation meant to cut down on
sales of
	pipes and other drug accessories in the parish. 
	
	Dubbed "Operation Pipe Dreams," the investigation by the Sheriff's
Office,
	came after numerous complaints from residents who saw the items
being sold
	explicitly as drug paraphernalia, sometimes in front of children. 
	
	The informant explicitly asked clerks for "crack pipes" and "a bong,
to
	smoke marijuana out of." 
	
	The Sheriff's Office seized more than 500 pipes from seven different
	convenience stores.
	
	The glass pipes are often sold as novelty items. For example, the
items sold
	as "crack pipes" are often sold with a silk rose inside and called a
"glass
	rose." Some stores had "glass pens," where the cartridge for an ink
pen can
	be removed and filled with crack. 
	
	Sheriff's officials said Friday that selling such items is legal,
but not
	when merchants are aware they will be used in connection with
illegal drugs.
	


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