Israel outlaws bongs
Monday, June 16th, 2008 at 7:35 am | By: Radical Russ
Knesset outlaws sale of bongs, often used for marijuana consumption – Haaretz – Israel News
The Knesset Law, Constitution and Justice Committee approved on Sunday a law banning the sale of bongs — water pipes often used for the smoking of marijuana.The law, which was approved in the second and third readings, prohibits the sale and import of apparatuses geared for the production and consumption of illicit drugs. The main objective of the new law is to put an end to the sale of bongs at stores adjacent to educational institutions.
The law stipulates that the punishment for the sale of bongs will not exceed five years incarceration. However, the Knesset committee withdrew the clause that prohibits the possession of paraphernalia used for personal drug use.
Even before the new law was approved, the existing law prohibited the sale and possession of devices used to produce or consume drugs, and even attached a maximum 20 year jail sentence as a penalty to such a crime, but the existing law is difficult to enforce because the courts insist that the device in question contain at least traces of illicit substances.
The new law still awaits approval in the second and third readings before the Knesset plenum.
If you think laws against marijuana are silly, try enforcing one against marijuana paraphernalia. What, exactly, is the difference between an unused glass bong and a creative glass sculpture? Under the old law, the glass “art” was paraphernalia once it has marijuana residue on it, but now, it’s illegal if it is “intended” for marijuana smoking.
We’ve seen this in other situations. An article in this month’s High Times mentions how glass pipe importers have to not drill through the carb on pipes being imported and run a string through the pipe, because if the glass has one hole and is on a string, it’s “jewelry”, but if it has two holes, it is paraphernalia.
I anticipate clever Israeli stoners circumventing this law quite easily – unless Israel plans on making illegal two-liter soda bottles, apples, paper towel tubes, surgical tubing, little plastic bears that contain honey, or any of the myriad assortment of items with which one can fashion a bong.
Topics: bong, Israel, paraphernalia
