“My son screamed for his mother for what seemed like an eternity”

Reason ^ | May 20, 2012 | Mike Riggs

[Altariel]

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.

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.

In his email, Farrar denies selling spice. "Piece of Mind Boise has never carried these products EVER! We made a commitment from the start not to carry it because we believe it is dangerous and not being used in a legal fashion."

He also notes that his cousin, "[who] has never previously committed a crime and has absolutely no criminal record," has been charged with "with 4 Federal felony charges stemming from selling tobacco products."

“The open sale of drug paraphernalia promotes unlawful drug use and helps drug traffickers thrive,” Olson said at a press conference on May 10. “These indictments show federal, state and local law enforcement partners will attack drug trafficking on all fronts.”

During a speech at the Center for American Progress earlier this month, Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske said that the law enforcement-only approach to America's drug problem was not "humane, compassionate" or "realistic." He also said that the Obama administration does not believe it can "arrest its way out of the drug problem."

Reason spoke to one headshop owner. At his attorney’s behest, this owner declined to go on the record, but did say that local police had been aware of the store’s existence and sales of glass pipes for years, but had never threatened charges or discouraged the business from operating. The owner believes that the raids came at the behest of federal law enforcement officials.

According to the Idaho Statesman, “the DEA, Idaho National Guard, IRS and the U.S. Marshals and Attorney’s offices worked on the case,” which the agencies built over the course of an entire year.

As if more evidence were needed that President Obama's drug war looks a lot like George W. Bush's: The charges against Farrar and the other Idaho headshop owners are reminiscent of the federal prosecution of actor Tommy Chong under Bush's DOJ. Chong was convicted in 2003 for distributing paraphernalia through his company Nice Dreams Enterprises. Chong was fined $20,000, and made to forfeit his domain name, all of his inventory, and $103,514 in cash.

[hoosierham]

“shall not be infringed” is clear but politicians and demagogues have used fear to induce Americans into state slavery;for what is slavery but having to ask permission for everything you want to do?

[Altariel]

Don’t worry, the same justification will one day be used against you.

You should have known that the state did not approve of you riding motorcycles—it is justifiable for the State to shoot your children. You should have known better.

You should have known that the state did not approve of you spreading butter on your toast this morning. The State must police (literally) the health of its citizens, Comrade!

I daresay that if our ancestors even 100 years ago had Free Republic, none of them would be defending this today—if they had been told about it, they would have been up in arms already. Not because they were drug supporters or drug users (necessarily)—but because they understood the dangers of the government hydra and took it more seriously than too many do today.

[Boogieman]

“You own fire arms you have a respossibility to make them legal.”

I have a responsibility to “make them legal”?!?

I have a Constitutional right to own them, it’s the legislators’ responsibility to make them legal!

[Altariel]

Don’t worry, the same justification will one day be used against you.

You should have known that the state did not approve of you riding motorcycles—it is justifiable for the State to shoot your children. You should have known better.

You should have known that the state did not approve of you spreading butter on your toast this morning. The State must police (literally) the health of its citizens, Comrade!

I daresay that if our ancestors even 100 years ago had Free Republic, none of them would think this could ever happen in a free nation.

Certainly none of them would be defending this today—if they had been given a glimpse into their descendants future. They would have been up in arms already. Not because they were drug supporters or drug users (necessarily)—but because they understood the dangers of the government hydra and took it more seriously than too many do today.

[bluetick]

Oh, I did start at the beginning of the thread. I just disagree that children should ever be be placed in harms way at the gunpoint of government thugs for the dastardly deed of selling some pipes.

[caww]

I have a Constitutional right to own them, it’s the legislators’ responsibility to make them legal!

Well so far I'd say that's working for you. But I wouldn't put a lot of weight in the Constitutional rights we have under this administration...nor the governance that we are under. The Constitution is not what this leadership nor our Congress operates under when they determine to do otherwise.

[Max in Utah]

Go to Mexico where you can run with the cartels unmolested. That's what no law enforcement looks like.

Go to North Korea where you can get your jollies terrorizing any ordinary citizen for any reason whatsoever. That's what a police state looks like.

[Max in Utah]

Go to Mexico where you can run with the cartels unmolested. That's what no law enforcement looks like.

Go to North Korea where you can get your jollies terrorizing any ordinary citizen for any reason whatsoever. That's what a police state looks like.

[skinkinthegrass]

...thugs.

[caww]

I just disagree that children should ever be be placed in harms way at the gunpoint of government thugs for the dastardly deed of selling some pipes.

This was far more than one business and or that of selling pipes. Read the article again.

The guy put his family in harms way by his choices to deal in this stuff...and his association with others likewise. Thereby he put his children in danger. Furthermore 12 year old kids today are not the kids once were....especially in the drug trade where they are often used by their family's.

I have no problem with them taking down a 12 year old...For example, in a survey of 18,348 middle and high school students from Maryland, 7% of 6th graders 14% of 8th graders, and 24% of 10th graders reported being asked to sell drugs.

In Washington, DC, 12% of boys and 3% of girls in grades 6 and 7 were asked to sell drugs and 20% of boys and 7% of girls in grades 7 and 8 were asked to sell drugs.

It's no secret they go after the kids to assist in what they do.

[Yashcheritsiy]

Key is the "IF" in your statement.

Irrelevant argument. The post of Altariel's to which you were responding was predicated on them being banned (go back and read it again), and therefore your response should be assumed to be based on that as well.

[DBrow]

A hookah is a water pipe, a bong has a hole in the body that you cover while filling the body with smoke, then you open it and inhale the stuff. The hole can be called hole, or carburetor

I looked into this for the Tommy Chong case.

IF your hookah has a hole for ventilation it is a "bong" and the feds will shoot your dog and terrorize your kids. A hookah bar that has no hole in their hookahs is OK, open a commercial storefront. This distinction is NOT spelled out well in the Controlled Substances Act. The feds seem to think that the presence of that hole means that the pipe is INTENDED to be used with illegal substances, because your traditional tobacco water pipe historically NEVER had a carbeuration hole.

................................

authorities.

(d) "Drug paraphernalia'' defined

The term "drug paraphernalia'' means any equipment, product, or material of any kind which is primarily intended or designed for use in manufacturing, compounding, converting, concealing, producing, processing, preparing, injecting, ingesting, inhaling, or otherwise introducing into the human body a controlled substance, possession of which is unlawful under this subchapter. It includes items primarily intended or designed for use in ingesting, inhaling, or otherwise introducing marijuana,\1\ cocaine, hashish, hashish oil, PCP, methamphetamine, or amphetamines into the human body, such as--

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\1\ So in original. Probably should be "marihuana,''.

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(1) metal, wooden, acrylic, glass, stone, plastic, or ceramic pipes with or without screens, permanent screens, hashish heads, or punctured metal bowls;

(2) water pipes;

(3) carburetion tubes and devices;

(4) smoking and carburetion masks;

(5) roach clips: meaning objects used to hold burning material, such as a marihuana cigarette, that has become too small or too short to be held in the hand;

(6) miniature spoons with level capacities of one-tenth cubic centimeter or less;

(7) chamber pipes;

(8) carburetor pipes;

(9) electric pipes;

(10) air-driven pipes;

(11) chillums;

(12) bongs;

(13) ice pipes or chillers;

(14) wired cigarette papers; or

(15) cocaine freebase kits.

(e) Matters considered in determination of what constitutes drug paraphernalia

In determining whether an item constitutes drug paraphernalia, in addition to all other logically relevant factors, the following may be considered:

(1) instructions, oral or written, provided with the item concerning its use;

(2) descriptive materials accompanying the item which explain or depict its use;

(3) national and local advertising concerning its use;

(4) the manner in which the item is displayed for sale;

(5) whether the owner, or anyone in control of the item, is a legitimate supplier of like or related items to the community, such as a licensed distributor or dealer of tobacco products;

(6) direct or circumstantial evidence of the ratio of sales of the item(s) to the total sales of the business enterprise;

(7) the existence and scope of legitimate uses of the item in the community; and

(8) expert testimony concerning its use.

(f) Exemptions

This section shall not apply to--

(1) any person authorized by local, State, or Federal law to manufacture, possess, or distribute such items; or

(2) any item that, in the normal lawful course of business, is imported, exported, transported, or sold through the mail or by any other means, and traditionally intended for use with tobacco products, including any pipe, paper, or accessory.

[caww]

I answered accordingly....firearms to date are Not banned....the statement was “if” they were....should that one day be the case then the equation changes...and each will risk the outcome by concealing them of “storm troopers” crashing down their doors. It is how it is done now. Obviously so, you break the laws the consequences will and do come...and the risk with it.

As said before...I understand the arguements for our right to defend our homes and familys under the constitution....but this situation was and is not a constitutional issue...it was a drug bust...and that is how it’s done regardless if we like it or not.

[caww]

I answered accordingly....firearms to date are Not banned....the statement was “if” they were....should that one day be the case then the equation changes...and each will risk the outcome by concealing them of “storm troopers” crashing down their doors. It is how it is done now. Obviously so, you break the laws the consequences will and do come...and the risk with it.

As said before...I understand the arguements for our right to defend our homes and familys under the constitution....but this situation was and is not a constitutional issue...it was a drug bust...and that is how it’s done regardless if we like it or not.

[hoosierham]

In the first couple hundred years of this nation,that is in the time it was a mostly free Republic,tobacco selling didn’t need a special license.

Statists want you to have to have their permission for evey action,or lack of action.

[Ken H]

When austerity hits this country for real, drug war pricks are going under the bus. Big time. It's all right, though. They can always find work as bouncers at some of the seedier establishments.

BTW, your pensions are NOT sacrosanct. Dwell on that.

[listenhillary]

I want to ask the worshipers at the alter of Statism.

“When the solution to any problem is another government program and more government spending, what is the solution to too much government?”

[JustSayNoToNannies]

I have no problem with them taking down a 12 year old...For example, in a survey of 18,348 middle and high school students from Maryland, 7% of 6th graders 14% of 8th graders, and 24% of 10th graders reported being asked to sell drugs.

So because SOME 12-year-olds have been ASKED to sell drugs, it's OK to point a gun at a bong-seller's 12-year-old child?!

[Altariel]

It is a constitutional issue-—it is an issue which some here have ceded to the statists, but it is a constitutional issue nonetheless.

I find it very disturbing that you believe it is justifiable to threaten to murder a 2 year old or 12 year old based on what the State accuses the parents of doing.

Tyrannies always begin with Good Causes, and the hydra grows with each new family it devours.

Its ever-hungry eye will fall upon you and yours one day.

[bluetick]

My initial reaction to that is “Wow”.

I’ll go back and read the article again if you’ll promise to read the Constitution for us.