News.com is reporting on Operation Pipe Dreams, an operation that brought down eleven websites that sold drug paraphernalia. The websites in question may be redirected to a DEA.gov page has "been restrained" according to some presumably relevant passage in the US Code.
The director of NORML had this take on the situation:
"This latest enforcement initiative is primarily an expression of extremism of this particular attorney general. [Ashcroft] is a right-wing zealot. Now I'm not a fan of the Bush administration, but I have to think that President Bush and most of his serious advisers have far more serious work to focus on right now than whether someone's selling rolling papers and roach clips."Marc Rotenberg of EPIC had this take on the situation, focusing on the request to redirect the "illegal" websites:
"It sounds like this is a concluded drug operation segueing into a new sting operation," he said. "In effect, the defunct Web sites become electronic flypaper for those looking for illegal drug paraphernalia, reporters covering the story, and people who have trouble spelling in Google."Hrm. Let's see where John Poindexter's Total Information Awareness omnibase fits into this picture...
Uh, whatever. What, did little plastic scales or bongs start randomly showing up in people's mailboxes or something? WTF is he talking about? Is he on drugs or something? As if this helps reduce drug use or sale.
I knew there were city ordinances but I wasn't aware there was a federal law prohibiting paraphernalia. I couldn't find a date on that site that indicated when it was passed.
In any case I think it's probably unconstitutional and wouldn't withstand a Supreme Court challenge. Besides, it won't stop anything. I mean, really, just order it from a Canadian site or something. Pointless.
