IN THE NEWS

A local Parent Advisory Council has been fighting for a year to get glass tubes - often used by crack addicts - off shelves of a store near their children's school. 

by Matthew Claxton

Parents at Willoughby Elementary want something done about a nearby corner store that sells drug paraphernalia, including items often used as crack pipes. The Willoughby Market sells four-inch glass tubes from a display near the cash register. The tubes, known as "rose tubes," are stoppered at one end with a small piece of cork and have a small fake rose inside. Although advertised as gift items, they are widely used by crack addicts who throw away everything but the glass and use a small piece of scrubbing pad as a filter for the crack.

 When a Langley Advance reporter asked specifically for a glass pipe at the store on Tuesday, the clerk handed him a rose tube immediately. The situation at the Willoughby Market came to light last year, when Michele Lavery was on the Willoughby Elementary PAC executive. The parents sent the store a letter asking the owner to stop selling the rose tubes. "And the letter had no effect on them," she said. "We never got any response from the store, nothing." Current PAC president Cyanna Mufford said eventually the manager simply stopped talking to them. "This is a huge problem for our kids," she said. The PAC met Thursday, and will be sending a letter to the school board and the Township asking them to do something to get drug paraphernalia off the shelves."If you send your child into a corner store to get milk or bread, they'll have to pay for it next to drug paraphernalia," she said. She noted that she has seen the glass tubes for sale at a tobacco store in Langley City as well, but children are much less likely to go into that type of store. Willoughby Market owner Don Chang said he cannot go out the door, following his customers, to see what they are using his products for. The Willoughby Market also sells tobacco pipes, but Chang can't control what people put in the pipes, he said. "We are not the police," Chang said. After the parents complained about the rose tubes the first time, he put them behind the counter where they could not be seen, he said. But eight or nine people came in complaining and asking where they were. He has also talked to a lawyer, who wrote a notice that has been posted along the top of the store counter in several places.

It reads: "All of our products are intended for legitimate legal use."

If people really want to stop the sale of rose tube products, the government should ban them, Chang said, and he will stop selling them. "I've lived here 27 years. I don't want to break the law," he said. While the issue has flared up recently in Surrey, it has rarely come to the attention of the Langley RCMP. "We haven't noticed it being a huge problem in Langley," said Cpl. Diane Blain. "We haven't had any complaints, anyway." The RCMP can seldom get involved in any case, because it isn't illegal in Canada to sell drug paraphernalia. 

Blain compared the practice to the sale of hydroponic growing equipment. Much of what is sold is used by marijuana growers, but because the items have a legitimate use, there is no cause to shut down the stores that sell them. Langley District PAC president Susan Semonick said the issue was discussed at Wednesday's DPAC meeting. The group will ask parents for their views, and may ask the school board to act on the behalf of all PACs in December.

Langley Township Mayor Kurt Alberts was surprised to hear that drug paraphernalia is being sold in ordinary corner stores in Langley. "I've never noticed it myself, but then I haven't been looking," he said. "I would hope that we'd get cooperation from the store owner," the mayor added. He isn't sure whether the Township can legally use bylaws to prohibit or limit the sale of such items, but said if it comes up as an issue before Township Council, he would certainly want to consult with the RCMP. Unless Langley City and the Township can put bylaws in place to control or stop the sale of paraphernalia, there is little the police can do.

The most they could do, if there were a bylaw, would be to ticket store owners. Local governments might be able to deny business licenses to violators of such bylaws. Several jurisdictions in the United States, including some Florida cities, have cracked down on the sale of rose tubes over the past few years.

In California, the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control specifically mentions rose tubes as an item of drug paraphernalia in its licensing regulations. Liquor stores can lose their licenses for carrying the items.