Why Head Shop Raids Are Unfair and Unjust

By Norman Kent, CounterPunch. Posted January 5, 2009.

Here is what he told local reporters: "I don't understand America. They gave me a license in Key West. I paid my taxes. I obeyed the law. Florida said it was OK to sell the things. But now people from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, and federal agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration come in and take everything away from me without even a notice to remove it first."

It's more than that, Moti.

You detrimentally relied upon the representations of Key West city representatives that you could lawfully do what you were doing. Day by day, hour by hour, Key West city police patrolled your business, and no one told you that you could not do what you were doing. You have been operating openly and legally for years. You paid your taxes. You had an occupational license. You employed your neighbors. Now you got screwed.

Key West is not the first city to deal with this conflict between state and federal laws, nor will it be the last. California is of course the epicenter of this cosmos of confusion, with the feds neither recognizing medical dispensaries nor Proposition 215, a medial marijuana law. Just last week, our federal government pushed the envelope even further, raiding head shops in San Diego.

Across this country, over the past few years, other shops across this country have been systematically and surreptitiously raided, and their products seized. Meanwhile, pipes and paraphernalia are being marketed nationally, expanding rapidly in convenience stores from coast to coast. Find one repressive, right-wing mayor in the right town with the wrong agenda and you could conceivably become the target. Ask Tommy Chong. It's still happening on a wider scale.

What happens to the products that are seized?

Agents quietly warn the businessmen to suck up the forfeiture and not challenge it in court. The advisory goes something like this: "Most likely we will just destroy this stuff as contraband, but if you attempt to challenge it, well there is no saying we won't come back and arrest you." Facing a not-so-veiled threat of criminal prosecution, the stores live with the bankruptcies, seizures and loss of their products. The feds say they will destroy the contraband. More likely, some of them will use it at their bachelor parties.

These raids may deprive stores of their inventory, but our government abandons fundamental principles. Our citizens lose their rights. Lawyers are denied the opportunity to meaningfully contest the seizures. One more chink is carved into the heart of liberty.

If the past stays true to form, these unconscionable seizures will not make the national news. Politicians are too complacent, the drug-law reform movement is too weak, and the massive pot smoking public is too disorganized, probably more concerned about getting high on those products designed for legal purposes only. 

As for those merchants, outside of a small circle of their friends, no one cares.

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