Let’s get one thing straight: The store Higher Source does not sell bongs, it sells water pipes.
This small issue of semantics is all that it takes for stores such as Higher Source, Hunky Dory Pipe and Tobacco, Lazar’s Bazar and Sweet Potatoe Pie to sell items that Brinda Narayan-Wold, member of the Lane County Prevention Coalition, thinks have strong illegal connotations.
There are strict laws regulating what can be sold and to whom it can be sold. For a short period after its grand opening on Sept. 22 at the old Shizadas location at 133 E. 13th Ave., the store was closed to anybody under the age of 21 because the city had not approved its tobacco permit. On one day, in the period of an hour, co-owner Jenifer Liput asked more than 20 people to leave the store because they were too young or didn’t have identification.
“I want to keep this store’s reputation high. That means turning away customers if they don’t have their ID,” she said.
The rules go further than that. If Liput or any of her employees think that a customer has intent to use their products illegally, they will not sell to them. All their products are strictly for use with tobacco products.
“We have to legally kick you out of the store if you say ‘bong,’” Liput said.
Alec Brown, a University student and Higher Source customer, said the language used when shopping in such stores is part of a game.
“You don’t say ‘bong.’ You say ‘tube,’” he said. “I like the ritual of the second language.”
Brown said the employees of Higher Source took a no-nonsense approach adhering to the rules, while other stores around town had been more relaxed.
“It’s to their credit. They’re not deluding themselves as to what they are selling,” he said.
But by playing the game, even a store with good intentions can be undermined by its customers. University student Wendy Miller said she has never seen anybody smoking tobacco from a glass pipe.
“It’s a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ thing,” she said.
Liput said she follows the law and feels no shame about what she sells. But she is frustrated when people don’t treat her business with respect.
“I don’t even like people calling this place a ‘head shop.’ That’s not the connotation I want with my business,” she said.
Detective Fredrick Testa of the Oregon State Police said he is skeptical of the intent of any store owner who sells products that have associations with marijuana, but at the same time he said there is little the police can do to prove an owner isn’t true to his or her word.
“Is the law a loophole? Absolutely,” he said. “But marijuana isn’t viewed as an important enforcement area in this town.”
Testa also said that proving a device is actually paraphernalia boils down to a simple matter of articulation. He said if it can be proven in court that someone was using a Coke can to smoke pot, that Coke can becomes paraphernalia.
Liput defines her merchandise as functional art. She said the store is dedicated to providing the highest quality of work in the glass field. Liput won’t buy people’s products off the street; samples must be submitted in a professional manner.
“I like to get to know the people that sell me their product,” she said.
Pieces from local artists such as Dan K and David Strobel are for sale at Higher Source, along with works from other artists from the Eugene Glass School. Liput said most of the work at Higher Source is produced locally.
“Eugene is one of the biggest areas in the U.S. for glass workers,” she said.
A higher quality of work commands higher prices. Prices depend on two things: thickness of the glass and the time the artist puts into the work. Liput sells glass pipes for as little as $10, but prices can exceed $3,000.
Brown said the quality of the merchandise is very high, and the prices are at reasonable levels for that quality.
Student Micaela Frank said that though the high-end pipes are beautiful, she couldn’t see spending the money to own one — for safety reasons.
“I’d be afraid that something would happen to it,” she said.
Liput does carry low-priced pipes, but said that she would quickly take them off the shelves if she had a choice. She also said she dabbles in glass work herself but would not consider selling her own work until it met her quality standards.
Quality aside, the bottom line for Narayan-Wold is that in her mind, these pipes have illegal connotations. But in her perception, the problem is not the pipes or the stores that sell them, it is the community that accepts them.
“Because there are these very stubborn community values that act like English ivy, it’s frustrating (to try and change them),” she said. “How can you really make a difference in a community like that?”