LH Press Library
Group Wants Drug Supplies off Shelves
Lake Highlands: Ban sought on items used to smoke crack
The Dallas Morning News, by Katie Menzer
July 18, 2005
Steve Wakefield walked into a Lake Highlands convenience store and asked the clerk for a "brown bag." What he got was not a sack lunch.
It was a paper bag containing a copper scouring pad, a flavored cigar and a small glass tube holding a fake rose – all legal items that can be used to smoke crack or other illegal drugs, police say.
"Can you believe that?" Mr. Wakefield asked moments after emerging with the bag, which is also known as a "crack kit," from the Y & H Mart at Royal Lane and Skillman Street.
"It's like that's a regular item of business. They know exactly what that's going to be used for," said Mr. Wakefield, a lawyer who has lived in the area for 25 years.
The convenience and abundance of drug paraphernalia is why the Lake Highlands Area Improvement Association is petitioning stores to stop selling rolling papers, glass pipes, flavored cigars and other items that can be used with illicit drugs.
If stores won't voluntarily break the habit, the alliance of about 50 neighborhood associations and crime-watch groups plans to ask City Hall for an ordinance that bans the sale of the merchandise in their back yard.
Some store managers said if they don't stock the items, someone else will. The manager of Y & H Mart wasn't available for comment the day Mr. Wakefield bought the brown bag, and he couldn't be reached by phone.
The items might be legal to sell, but association members said storeowners attract drug dealers and users to the area by stocking the products that can be used to fashion crack pipes and other drug-related devices.
"The people that sell the drugs are usually hanging out in the parking lot by those stores that sell those items," said Sgt. Kenneth LeCesne, a veteran Dallas narcotics police officer who recently moved to the homicide division.
"The paraphernalia itself is not illegal, but you and I know that people don't take water pipes and smoke tobacco out of them."
The Get N Go convenience store on Audelia Road near Forest Lane sells rolling papers, flavored cigars and rose tubes. A man who identified himself as the store manager said Wednesday that he knew drug users bought and used the products.
"It's legal, isn't it?" said the man, who refused to give his name. "If someone else can sell it, why can we not?"
Nearby at the American Dollar+ Store on Forest, manager Majid Alkhenany said his store purposely does not stock rolling papers, glass pipes or similar items, although customers sometimes ask for them.
"This is killing people," he said. "This is not a good thing."
Merchandise in question
Among the merchandise residents want off the shelves are mesh scouring pads – often sold under the brand name Chore Boys. The pads can be placed in pipes to hold and filter crack.
They're also targeting flavored cigars and tobacco products, which can be hollowed out and filled with drugs to be smoked, police say.
Rose tubes – often found near the cash register at convenience stores – should be pulled as well, the group's petition demands. The tubes are about 4 inches long and about the width of a pen and are often used as crack pipes. Inside are paper or plastic roses.
"It's hard to see what purpose anyone would have for buying a cheap, fake rose stuck in a miniature tube," Mr. Wakefield said.
The group also wants stores to stop selling individual cigarettes that can be taken apart and filled with or soaked in drugs, tiny plastic bags that can be used to carry drugs and the crack kits.
Is ban legal?
Michael Linz of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas said the neighbors have a right to ask storeowners to stop selling certain items, but lawmakers should think twice before passing an ordinance to ban the sale of the products.
"The city shouldn't be in the business of outlawing legal products even if they may be misused by a small portion of our populace," he said.
"Before any council member proposes such an ordinance, I would strongly recommend they confer with the city attorney about the constitutionality of it."
City Council member Bill Blaydes, whose district includes Lake Highlands, said he would support an ordinance to ban the products. But he and the members of the neighborhood association have not looked into the legal nuances of passing such a rule in the area or citywide.
Chicago passed an ordinance in 1999 banning the sale of glass tubing that is designed for smoking crack or that sellers could reasonably assume was being used to take drugs. The ban includes rose tubes.
Although there might be other legal problems with an ordinance here, it probably would not be found unconstitutional by the courts, said Southern Methodist University law professor Lackland Bloom.
"I'd be very surprised if there was a problem with it," said Mr. Bloom, who teaches constitutional law.
Dallas police Lt. Ben Nabors of the northeast patrol division said drug use in Lake Highlands is no worse than in other areas of the city, although it does have pockets of problems.
He said that crime is down in the area 7 percent since this time last year, but that police appreciate the association's efforts with the petition.
"It possibly could make it a little more difficult for those who would use illicit drugs to get those products in the neighborhood," Lt. Nabors said.
Applying pressure
The Lake Highlands petition has been circulating for about a month, and Mr. Wakefield has been visiting nearby stores to see what they sell.
He's purchased rolling papers at one store, a few rose tubes at others and two brown bag kits.
Mr. Wakefield said he hopes storeowners will see the benefit – both fiscally and morally – of working with the neighborhood. He's already sent letters to storeowners and their landlords to request they stop selling the items.
"I think the petition is something that can be helpful if you are dealing with the right person," Mr. Wakefield said.
"If it is someone who doesn't care about how they make their money, then it will be less successful."
The manager of the Get N Go said pressure from the community was not going to make him adjust his inventory. The items are legal and can be used for legal purposes, plain and simple, he said.
"That's how we make money," he said. "It's about feeding our families."
Reprinted with permission of The Dallas Morning News
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