I'm confused. Normally, Consumerist helps defend consumers against evil corporations. How does this item fit into that rubric? Are we angry that we can't get our mini-roses? Just askin'.

Wow, that's messed up.

Don't the people who run those stores have any conscience? Handing out ready-made "crack kits" consisting of Everything You Need to Start Smokin', Just Add Crack(tm) seems to be akin to giving a drunk guy keys to his car, along with another bottle of booze for the road. You're fully aware of what you're helping the person do.

Selling all of the necessary ingredients in the store is one thing (it'd be pretty ludicrous to outlaw steel wool and those little tubes, given that they have other uses) but selling ready-made kits is pretty flagrant.

Or are we outraged at the sale of an item that just because it may be abused by some people, makes it bad for all of us.

This ordinance would be pointless, the stores would just switch to glass pens. Which actually have a use and come with a tool to help pack the steel wool.

Yeah, I've been down that road. Boston is way behind.

perhaps consumerist is outraged because crack is whack?

@rmz: No, the reporter asked for the "straght shooter", and was handed three seprate items. The store isn't to blame, but the clerk is...

Or as the title suggests - is it open to debate?

I suggest that it is my answer.

While the glass tube isn't all that objectionable just because it might be used to smoke crack, selling it with steel wool is sort of telling - but so are all the "tobacco water pipes" sold in head shops on St. Marks.

These shouldn't be sold in convenience stores, unless they're stocked next to the guns, beside the ammo and one isle over from the porn...

@levenhopper: Well, that's what I was referring to. The clerk was providing a kit consisting of various items. By extension, the store is providing the service to people since the clerk is a direct representative of the store while he's standing behind the counter.

If you know the right code word you can buy a crack pipe and the accompanying steel wool and whatnot in small convenience stores all over the country. Here in Brooklyn it was "Ali Baba" for a while.

Why bother banning them? Do you think people will stop smoking crack?

I think it's pretty safe to say that banning the sale of these will not result in even one less person smoking crack...

At least the state gets sales tax on legally sold paraphernalia...just sayin'...

I understand the premise here; that these things are available at a corner convenience store right out in the open. I've seen them, and I had no idea what they were (until now).

However, at what point do we just tell government that no matter what they do, crack users will get their high? It's not like glass tubes are not available elsewhere. If the town doesn't have a local chem lab supply store, then I'm sure there's some neon signs a desperate crack user can throw rocks at long enough to get a chunk of glass pipe. Or, they can just use mail order.

When does the citizens of this country put their foot down and ask the government to treat the illness and stop taking things away from people because they might hurt themselves with it.

Sheesh.

What, you mean that 'cigarette papers' have some other nefarious purpose, too?

Ick. I was riled up enough with my rant that I really made some mistakes. Oh well, even the most casual user should be able to figure it out.

@mantari: Hey man, I actually roll tobacco with those...it's cheaper, and I gotta afford my crack somehows

Where's my razorblade suitcase? This is discriminitory!

@rmz:

Speaking of consciences at convenience stores, I used to work for a Hess gas station and convenience store in Worcester, MA. I don't have super-high opinions about the company, but one thing I do admire is that (at least in that district) the stores weren't allowed to sell those "flower stems".

People used to stop by all the time asking for them though, and there were some really sketchy characters. I remember this one scantly-clad woman came in twice during the same night to ask if I sold "flower stems". Each time she came in a different car with a different man waiting in it. Can anyone say "crack whore"?

If the headline is meant to actually pose the question to us readers, I'll gladly answer that yes, crack pipes should be sold at stores. Heck, sell the crack too if you've got it. Making drugs illegal does not impede drug use; it merely enriches drug dealers while getting police officers killed.

I think all acrylic and glass tubing should be outlawed at all retail outlets because they can be made into bongs and crack pipes. Also apples, cardboard paper rolls, tinfoil, copper pipe, flasks, any kind of clipping device, paper, soda in cans, screening, rubber stoppers, Phish, Rusted Root and Grateful Dead records, tye-dye, Patagonia and Birkenstock clothing ... really, what would an honest, non-drug addled citizen need with such trash?

My sweetheart loves those little roses.

That is awesome. For years the US has been bashing The Netherlands for making it legal to buy weed, and now it turns out they've been legally selling crack smoking kits in convenience stores :D

@baa:

Yes. Crack is whack. This is the reason for my outrage!

If you want to ban one thing, you have to ban it all. Who hasn't seen a bong in a "novelty" store for "tobacco use only."

I've even seen crack pipes for sale under the guise it's for tobacco use - get real.

These types of stores also sell "jewelry bags" and "spice grinders" - didn't you know? It's all for tobacco!

No one's being fooled.

But now what will I buy for my 16 inch tall girlfriend on those special occasions?

McDonald's used to have little coffee stirrers that were in fact perfectly engineered for use as coke spoons. They stopped using them a long time back due to some anus's public outrage that their product could be misused.

Wait wait wait wait wait... does this mean that I can't get my lil' plastic roses anymore?

SON OF A...

First of all, the tubes are not made to be crack pipes, crackheads have just happened to have found that they serve that purpose well. Any slender glass tube should be banned if this is the precedent. No more eye-glass fix kits or tweezer cases!

I'm not sure how much I would buy what BostonNOW has to say. For starters, the newspaper is not more than a month old. Ever since their first issue they have had three or four thugs around Downtown Crossing everyday, touting their paper as if it is crack.

The liquor store on my corner sells bongs and ninja stars. What does this have to do with the topic at hand? Nothing. I just wanted to share with the world how awesome that liquor store is.

Maybe we could tax the hell out of them like alcohol , tobacco and gasahol. PROFIT!

@rmz: There were some convenience stores in my hometown (Chattanooga/northwest Georgia) that got in very hot water a few months ago for selling various items needed to produce meth -- in several cases, the items were all together in the store even though having them together makes no sense unless you're making a one-stop meth supplies shop (which some of the c-store owners pretty much admitted to doing.)

@brendahamLincoln: Either that, or they are trying to mellow out your community's ninja population by luring them in for ninja stars.

@maddypilar: You know, the only thing I've smoked out of water pipes is tobacco. They sell an awesome variety of hookah tobacco flavors, and it's really quite relaxing.

Of course crack pipes should be sold in convenience stores, otherwise they wouldn't be be very convenient.

Were these City Councilors in the Army back in the early '80s? Cause back then, we were warned every piece of equipment could be used by troops to get high. Gas mask? Check. Mess kits? Check. The plastic explosive in Claymore mines? Check.

.....Well, I think the FDA should come down on those stores like a ton of bricks! You know, those probably aren't Pyrex tubes, and burning crack in them could result in breaking, or dangerous chemicals getting in the product stream! You'd think that the government would rather the kids have safe crack pipes. They should probably have a safe crack-pipe subsidy for underprivledged kids! Wouldn't you rest better knowing your kids were using safe pipes? If these folks don't watch it, their kids will be back to huffing paint and glue in grocery sacks, and civilization will fall!

I never knew what those were, until i was in line at a convenience store in Dorchester behind an "eccentric" young/old woman who said to the clerk "And give me one of those crackpipes... I mean roses."
I used to share this nugget of wisdom as a conversation piece... looks like Boston PD (or city councilors) have screwed me over again...

@levenhopper: So right. I am outraged that the next time I need a tiny little plastic rose encased in a glass tube I won't be able to get one!

better ban light bulbs too, we had a methhead working at my company some years back and he'd use them to make makeshift pipes.

Perhaps they should pass a law banning meanness. Then everyone would be nice.

I'm not sure which is worse: politicians being so clueless about human nature and how black markets work, or politicians who are well aware of those things and cynically pretend otherwise so they can look like they're doing good without actually doing any good at all.

Well, being in recovery and working in a rehab I know that even when they 'stop selling them' at gas stations, they are still usually sold behind the counter. As one gas station clerk told me, "Well I bought a few cases and I am not going to lose money."

Nuff Said. Where I grew up on Long Island, they were $5 each.

I think they should sell them. Crack users will get them somewhere anyway, and if they can't easily find them, they steal sparkplugs off of motorcycles and use them to smoke their crack. I park my motorcycle outdoors and would rather have the pipes be available.

If selling crack pipes at convenience stores leads to at least one crack head not sharing their pipe, and thus not getting some communicable disease, then I say it's worth it.

In Ottawa, the city gives away crack pipes in the hope that it will cut down on the spread of Hepatitis. (It's constantly the subject of debate though.)

Remember how we made crack illegal, and you can't get crack anymore?

@cgmaetc: uh, all the eye-glass fix kits or tweezer cases i've ever bought were made out of plastic.

those be some pimpin' eye-glass fix kits and tweezer cases you be buyin' =)

The real consumer issue here is that people have to buy the tubes separately from the crack. What, the cheapass crack dealers can't throw in a ten-cent plastic tube with a purchase of rock? Those inconsiderate anti-consumerist bastards!

But seriously, this isn't a new issue. Detroit went through this argument back in the 1990s (apparently, the Detroit City Council knew crack was whack before the Boston City Council). It's been so long, I don't even remember if they passed a law about it.

I used to see similar tubes in convenience stores in Phoenix, AZ all the time. In fact, just google "convenience store crack pipe", and you'll find versions of this story on news websites across the country. It's a very trendy issue for city councils.

The Point of this isn't to stop crack from being smoked. The point is to determine WHERE crack is smoked.

By making it more difficult to get a hold of pipes in certain neighborhoods it discourages people from consuming and buying crack there. Since crack rocks are an immediate use item.

This will help push crack use out of nice neighborhoods as store owners willingly comply and less then nice places by selective enforcement. Leaving only the worst places with E-Z to buy crack pipes.

In Houston, the convenience stores sold pens that "just happened" to have a glass tube comprising the pen's body. Get all excited about roses, and you'll get pens. Get all excited about roses and pens and you'll get pencil leads, etc., ad infinitum.

Crack is class warfare.
Tubes are profitable.
A winning combination in America.

@Techguy1138: Bravo. You nailed that one.

I used to manage a convenience store. This was 9 years ago, when I was only twenty years old.

We had some vendors that had negotiated with corporate. The would get to bring in a display rack and put in whatever they liked. We had one vendor who did bring the rose vial things in. I didn't think of drug paraphernalia and probably won't three weeks from now if I seem them in the store.