Spokane cracks down on ‘predatory’ sale of crack pipes in downtown convenience stores

For just a few bucks, Spokane residents can pop into many local convenience stores and purchase something that looks like a crack pipe – and that very well may quack like a crack pipe – but that retailers will swear is an oil burner or made for tobacco.
Regardless of how they’re marketed, the city of Spokane is cracking down on their sale.
The City Council on Monday unanimously approved a ban on the sale of drug paraphernalia such as glass pipes and foil that could be used to smoke fentanyl and other narcotics unless the vendor also provided naloxone, an overdose reversal drug often sold under the brand name Narcan. The vendor would have to purchase and provide the medication at their own expense.
The law only applies within the boundaries of the downtown police precinct, which runs roughly from Interstate 90 to the south, the Spokane River to the north, Highbridge Park to the west and South Sherman Street to the east. The precinct covers less than 3% of the city but handles more drug-related crimes than the rest of the city combined.
The law has explicit carve-outs so supermarkets like Rosauers can continue to sell aluminum foil and cannabis retailers like Cinder can sell pipes and bongs without having to distribute naloxone. The requirement also does not apply to nonprofits providing “harm reduction services,” which could include providing sanitary drug paraphernalia.
The law would, in effect, ban the sale of these products without technically being an outright ban. Naloxone typically costs upward of $20 per dose, a cost that the convenience store would have to eat every time it sells a $5 pipe.
Drug paraphernalia is illegal and yet still frequently sold in gas stations, novelty shops and corner stores across the country, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. The objects appear to fall under the same legal grey area as pipes and bongs existed within before the legalization of cannabis in Washington state: As long as an argument could be made that the object could be used for a legal purpose, such as smoking tobacco, they might not legally be drug paraphernalia unless and until they are used as such.
The ordinance was met with mixed reception, with Emilie Cameron of the Downtown Spokane Partnership praising efforts to reduce drug use downtown and two medical students arguing the law would reduce access to sanitary drug paraphernalia.
A 2017 study showed a decade of narcotic pipe distribution in Vancouver, British Columbia, likely reduced associated health problems, such as cuts, burns and the spread of infectious diseases. It’s less clear from the available research how retailers, as opposed to controlled harm reduction sites, factor into that equation.
Most council members were sympathetic to the appeal to harm reduction, but said these retailers specifically were “predatory.” Councilwoman Kitty Klitzke argued that local service providers and the Spokane Regional Health District should step up efforts to distribute sanitary paraphernalia but added that “predatory sellers are giving (people) these items without any access to good counseling, good information or resources.”
Councilman Paul Dillon agreed, voicing support for harm reduction programs but arguing that these stores were engaging in “predatory behavior” and that the city needed to attempt something to combat overdoses. He noted that overdose rates continue to climb in Spokane and across the state, while they are decreasing nationwide.
Top of mind for council members were recent reports of a toddler who may have overdosed Saturday in Spokane Valley after allegedly accessing a spoon that had been used to smoke fentanyl.
Councilman Jonathan Bingle agreed that retailers were “selling them to prey on broken individuals,” and supported an “out-of-the-box way” to ban the sale of this type of paraphernalia. However, he sharply disagreed with government-run harm reduction programs, arguing that “the government should not be subsidizing people’s drug use.”
This temporarily turned the conversation into a debate over the morality and efficacy of harm reduction programs, with Councilman Zack Zappone noting findings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that syringe exchange programs, for example, are useful to minimize the spread of diseases like HIV and hepatitis and do not increase drug use.