Here’s the thing about those dubious glass pipes found in smoke shops: You don’t really know what they’ll be used for. Are the pipes for tobacco? Or for weed?
There’s a fine line between regulation and repression, and this was, in broad terms, the question at a Marina City Council meeting last month to determine the fate of the smoke shop called Twisted Roots. The Marina store sells everything from butane (which can be used to light fires or make hash oil, or both) to Bob Marley T-shirts (which can demonstrate allegiance to music or marijuana, or both).
Amadou Diallo, a businessman who with his wife, Shira, owns a handful of local stores, including an 8-year-old smoke shop in Monterey and a Pacific Grove sex shop, opened Twisted Roots in September 2012. He was allowed to run his store in Marina with a conditional use permit for one year, after which the permit could be renewed. But on Jan. 28, Marina officials brought the shop to the City Council with the goal of shutting it down.
Planning officials and police argued Twisted Roots had failed city inspections, citing two violations of the conditional use permit: The store allegedly sold “drug paraphernalia,” specifically prohibited, and it covered up more than 10 percent of its windows so people couldn’t see what’s happening inside.
But Diallo says the charges are ridiculous. He says much of what he sells – like drug tests and butane – are readily available at retailers like Wal-Mart. Things like glass pipes are legit, he claims, because these are products smoke shops regularly sell.
In Marina, he doesn’t sell water pipes, because the city specifically told him not to. (In Monterey, Diallo’s shelves are stacked with water pipes.)
In regards to the window covering, Diallo argues it’s unfair for his business to be targeted when other shops, including liquor stores, also cover their windows. Though he’d been warned before, he didn’t remove his window covering until the day of the council meeting.
Much of the council’s discussion centered on the city’s rule that the store couldn’t sell drug paraphernalia. State law, some council members pointed out, allows drug paraphernalia to be sold if the products are kept in a separate room only accessible to adults.
“It’s kind of like the X-rated back rooms of former video stores,” says Mayor Bruce Delgado. “We were being much more restrictive than state law.”
But Police Chief Eddie Rodriguez had a more dire message: “I need to remind you some of the products sold in this store are clearly used for drug use not related to marijuana – methamphetamine in particular.”
In the end the council, with the exceptions of councilmembers Frank O’Connell and Nancy Amadeo, ended up voting to grant Diallo his appeal. The result: Diallo’s store remains open while he and the city discuss terms for a new conditional use permit, a process that could take a couple of months.
Diallo says now that he’s aware of state law, he may make his entire shop 18 and over, possibly circumventing Marina’s request to not sell water pipes.
But Diallo chooses to look on the bright side: Required adjustments in layout and/or new walls could free up more space within the store’s footprint. “I have more room to grow [the shop] now than before,” he says.