You Can Put Your Weed in There

The drug paraphernalia crackdown is hard to understand even from a drug warrior's point of view. When the government seizes drugs and arrests traffickers, there is at least a theoretical possibility of having some impact on retail prices, even if it is slight and temporary. Other things being equal, higher prices could be expected to reduce drug consumption. But under what scenario does the government deter drug use by seizing bongs and arresting the operators of online head shops? As long as paper and aluminum foil (not to mention beer cans and apples) are available, pot smokers will have ready alternatives. Much like obscenity prosecutions of sex toy sellers (which cannot reasonably be expected to affect fornication rates), the anti-paraphernalia effort is a purely symbolic strike against artifacts that offend people in power.