City Attorney Explains Why "Drug Paraphernalia" Added to Fake-Dope Ordinance

As Andrea noted earlier, when it came time for the city council to discuss banning K2 and other synthetic cannabinoids, there was no mention of bongs, pipes and other paraphernalia -- the other half of the ordinance drafted by City Attorney Tom Perkins. I finally spoke with Perkins today and...

By Robert Wilonsky

August 11, 2010

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As Andrea noted earlier, when it came time for the city council to discuss banning K2 and other synthetic cannabinoids, there was no mention of bongs, pipes and other paraphernalia -- the other half of the ordinance drafted by City Attorney Tom Perkins. I finally spoke with Perkins today and asked: Why the need to add that laundry list of prohibited products to the ordinance, since it's already against state law to use "drug paraphernalia" to smoke the illegal stuff? To which he replied: State law only outlaws using bongs, pipes and other smoke-shop whatnots to inhale a "controlled substance." Since the state hasn't banned the sale fake dope -- not yet, anyhow, but Florence Shapiro has vowed to take care of that -- well, the city needed needed to rewrite the Dallas City Code.

"Under state law, K2 is not an illegal substance," Perkins tells Unfair Park. "This is complementary to the extent that K2 is now illegal in the city of Dallas. And now, if you have paraphernalia intended to be used to injest that product into the body, possession is illegal. The ordinance mirrors state law."

In other words: If you get pulled over Sunday or forever after and you've got, ya know, paraphernalia in the front seat, just make sure there's no hint of K2 in your Billy Bong Thornton. No word about apple cores, Coke cans and the rest of this stuff.

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