Health advocates pushing for crackdown on sales of drug paraphernalia in Lynn

LYNN – Two blocks from Central Square, a corner variety store sells paraphernalia for smoking marijuana, crack and heroin, despite a state law forbidding such items.On the shelves are well-known tobacco rolling papers like Zig-Zag, but in recent years a new crop of drug-using tools has appeared alongside.According to Catherine Dhingra, coordinator of prevention programs at Girls Inc., several mom-and-pop stores in Lynn are selling Rosebud Tubes – a glass tube slightly smaller in diameter than a quarter, with a rose inside. Abutting the Rosebud Tubes on the shelves are Chore Boys, wire-mesh pads similar to those sold by Brillo but more loosely woven.”People are buying the tubes, removing the rose and putting a piece of Chore Boy into it,” said Dhingra. “They use it to smoke crack or heroin.”A survey of 30 Lynn stores found bongs, hookahs, blunt wrappers, palm-sized metal pipes and the smaller, so-called one-hitters, some disguised as lipstick applicators.”All of these items are for sale in Lynn stores. It’s against the law but it’s not enforced,” said Dhingra, who was among the community activists to discuss the situation with city officials Tuesday. Dhingra was joined by Marianne O’Connor, head of the city’s Health Department, and Joyce Redford, executive director of the North Shore Tobacco Control Program.Five youth peer leaders – Genesis Diaz, Stephanie Hardy and Estephania Villar from La Verdad, and Hulerie McGuffie and Marven Hyppolit from Part of the Solution Youth Council, gave a presentation on drug paraphernalia and the results of their survey. The youth also provided a display of the drug tools.”The kids have been working on this since last spring,” said Dhingra, explaining that Redford provided the training before the teens surveyed the stores with their checklists in tow. “At first they were interested in marijuana and blunt wraps, but there’s a lot more out there.”Blunt wraps are larger than standard rolling papers and designed to hold loose tobacco. “But blunt wraps are never sold with the tobacco in them,” said Dhingra. “Everyone knows what they’re really used for.”A male intern in his mid-20s was sent to buy supplies as part of the study, said Dhingra, noting that found Rosebud Tubes stacked next to Chore Boys, although the products are seemingly unrelated – unless the buyer is shopping for crack pipe supplies.Stores where such items are sold that were named during the presentation at City Hall included Union Street Variety at the corner of Union and Silsbee streets, and the White Hen Pantry in Austin Square.The city’s police chief, superintendent of schools and community leaders from Peabody and Marblehead attended the presentation. “The folks from the other communities want to collaborate or do something similar, but they are looking to us to take the lead on the North Shore,” Dhingra said. “We already work with substance abuse coalitions all over the state.”Dhingra, O’Connor, Redford and others interested plan to form a task force aimed at creating legislation that would make the city’s Department of Inspectional Services responsible for enforcing the state’s paraphernalia ban rather than the Police Department.”That’s what they did in New Bedford,” said Dhingra. “It’s in the domain of the city’s inspectors so that stores can be fined for violations.”