by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
City Council member Sharon Copeland says buying a crack pipe in Jacksonville is much easier than it should be.
Copeland said convenience stores, many within walking distance of middle and high schools, are selling “rose tubes” or “love roses,” four-inch glass tubes containing small plastic flowers.
The tubes typically retail for less than $2 and are sold over the counter.
Copeland met recently with Ted Hires of the Justice Coalition, who told her addicts empty the tubes and use them to smoke crack.
“I couldn’t believe it when I heard,” said Copeland. “I would have never in a million years made that connection or realized how widespread it has become.
“We need to get these things off the shelves so we can put a stop to this.”
Copeland and Council member Pat Lockett-Felder recently purchased tubes and found the clerks selling them to be unaware of their dual purpose, and unwilling to remove them from the shelves.
“In a lot of cases, they know what they’re doing and they don’t even care,” she said. “It’s just shocking how easy it is to buy these things.
“How can we have allowed this to happen all over the city for so long?”
Following a “brainstorming meeting” the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and State Attorney’s Office next week, Copeland is expected to mount a two-prong campaign, one part education, one part legislation.
“We want to approach this issue from as many angles as we can and we have a lot of ideas,” she said. “First, we need to let the mothers in Duval County know this is going on. Getting the message out is a good place to start and we’ll rely on community activism to help us and I know we’ll have that.”
Copeland has been working with the General Counsel’s Office to see what kind of law can be drafted to limit or prohibit sales of the potential paraphernalia.
“We’re also going to have to see what we can do, constitutionally, to stop this,” she said. “If we can, we may look into revoking licenses allowing these kinds of stores to sell lottery tickets.
“It doesn’t make sense to me for a store to be able to sell Lotto tickets, which are supposed to help fund schools, but then turn around and sell crack pipes to school-aged children.”