Opinion ID: 768736
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: smoking and carburetion masks;

Text: 19 (5)roach clips: meaning objects used to hold burning material, such as a marijuana cigarette, that has become too small or too short to be held in the hand; 20 (6)miniature spoons with level capacities of one-tenth cubic centimeter or less; 21 (7)chamber pipes; 22 (8)carburetor pipes; 23 (9)electric pipes; 24 (10)air-driven pipes; 25 (11)chillums; 26 (12)bongs; 27 (13)ice pipes or chillers; 28 (14)wired cigarette papers; or 29 (15)cocaine freebase kits. 30 (e)In determining whether an item constitutes drug paraphernalia, in addition to all other logically relevant factors, the following may be considered: 31 (1)instructions, oral or written, provided with the item concerning its use; 32 (2)descriptive materials accompanying the item which explain or depict its use; 33 (3)national and local advertising concerning its use; 34 (4)the manner in which the item is displayed for sale; 35 (5)whether the owner, or anyone in control of the item, is a legitimate supplier of like or related items to the community, such as a licensed distributor or dealer of tobacco products; 36 (6)direct or circumstantial evidence of the ratio of sales of the item(s) to the total sales of the business enterprise; 37 (7)the existence and scope of legitimate uses of the item in the community; and 38 (8)expert testimony concerning its use. 39 21 U.S.C. § 863. 40 Music City contends that as applied to the items that Customs agents seized in 1998, the statute's definition of drug paraphernalia is unconstitutionally vague. To survive a challenge of unconstitutional vagueness in application, a penal statute must define the criminal offense with sufficient definiteness that ordinary people can understand what conduct is prohibited and in a manner that does not encouragearbitrary or discriminatory enforcement. Posters 'N' Things, 511 U.S. at 526, 114 S. Ct. at 1754 (quoting Kolender v. Lawson, 461 U.S. 352, 357, 103 S. Ct. 1855, 1858, 75 L. Ed. 2d 222 (1972) and citing Grayned v. Rockford, 408 U.S. 104, 108-09, 92 S. Ct. 2294, 2298-99, 33 L. Ed. 2d 222 (1972)). 3 41 In evaluating Music City's claims, the Supreme Court's opinion in Posters 'N' Things is instructive, as it is the most recent case in which the Court discussed the constitutionality of the drug paraphernalia statute. In Posters 'N' Things, police executed a search of defendants' business premises, seizing pipes, bongs, scales, roach clips, and drug diluents. Defendants were subsequently indicted and convicted for, among other things, selling drug paraphernalia in interstate commerce in violation of the drug paraphernalia statute then located at 21 U.S.C. § 857. On appeal one of the arguments defendants raised was that the statute was unconstitutionally vague as applied to the items seized. The Court disagreed, observing that the list of items in § 857(d) that constitute per se drug paraphernalia provided relatively clear guidelines as to prohibited conduct. Id. at 525, 114 S. Ct. at 1754. With regard to these listed items the Court stated that there can be little doubt that the statute is sufficiently determinate to meet constitutional requirements. Id. at 525-26, 114 S. Ct. at 1754. The Court also noted that § 857(e) set forth objective criteria for assessing whether items constitute drug paraphernalia, minimizing the possibility of arbitrary enforcement and assisting in defining the conduct the statute prohibits. Id. at 526, 114 S. Ct. at 1754 (citing United States v. Mishra, 979 F.2d 301, 309 (3d Cir. 1992) and United States v. Schneiderman, 968 F.2d 1564, 1568 (2d Cir. 1992), which both found that while a certain degree of ambiguity necessarily surrounds the classification of drug paraphernalia, the statute provided constitutionally sufficient guidance). Additionally, the Court observed that § 857(f) exempted items traditionally used with tobacco, further limit[ing] the scope of the statute and preclud[ing] its enforcement against legitimate sellers of lawful products. Id. at 526, 114 S. Ct. at 1754. 42 Although in the case at bar we address the current drug paraphernalia statute located at 21 U.S.C. § 863, the Supreme Court's analysis of the old statute located at 21 U.S.C. § 857 remains controlling. When Congress recodified the statute it left the language originally contained in § 857 (d)-(f) unchanged, leaving the precedential value of cases interpreting the old statute intact. Therefore, as applied to the items that the Supreme Court addressed in Posters 'N' Things, such as pipes not traditionally used for tobacco, bongs, scales, 4 diluents, and roach clips, it is clear that 21 U.S.C. § 863 is not unconstitutionally vague. Given this fact, we need not be detained long with Music City's arguments that § 863 is vague as applied to the pipes that the government seized from its warehouse. As the Supreme Court noted, the statute specifically lists pipes designed for use with illegal drugs in subsection (d), provides objective factors to assist in their evaluation in subsection (e), and excludes pipes traditionallyused to smoke tobacco in subsection (f). Consequently, while Music City may be unhappy with the district court's conclusion that the various pipes that Customs Agents confiscated were drug paraphernalia, it cannot complain that 21 U.S.C. § 863 was unconstitutionally vague as applied to those pipes. 5 43 Music City points out, however, that several of the items seized were the type of multi-use items that the Supreme Court voiced concern about in Posters 'N' Things, 511 U.S. at 526, 114 S. Ct. at 1754. In Posters 'N' Things the Court stated: 44 Section 857's application to multiple-use items--such as scales, razor blades, and mirrors--may raise more serious concerns. Such items may be used for legitimate as well as illegitimate purposes, and 'a certain degree of ambiguity necessarily surrounds their classification.' Mishra, 979 F.2d, at 309. This case, however, does not implicate vagueness or other due process concerns with respect to such items. Petitioners operated a full-scale head shop, a business devoted substantially to the sale of products that clearly constituted drug paraphernalia. The Court stated in Hoffman Estates: The theoretical possibility that the village will enforce its ordinance against a paper clip placed next to Rolling Stone magazine ... is of no due process significance unless the possibility ripens into a prosecution. 455 U.S., at 503-504, n. 21, 102 S.Ct., at 1196, n. 21. Similarly here, we need not address the possible application of § 857 to a legitimate merchant engaging in the sale of only multiple-use items. Id. 45 Thus, Music City correctly observes that the Court quite naturally did not address whether the statute would be unconstitutionally vague with respect to the prosecution of a legitimate merchant who sold only multi-use items, an issue not before the Court. Music City attempts to style itself as such a merchant, arguing that at worst some of the items it sold were multi-use items. 46 Music City is correct in noting that the Supreme Court has expressed some concern about the statute's constitutionality as applied to the seizure of multiple use items such as scales, razor blades, and mirrors from merchants dealing only in multiple use items. However, while Music City did carry multiple use items as well as legitimate tobacco related products, it also carried a wide variety of pipes that based on their design, were only suitable for use with controlled substances 6 . See id. at 518, 114 S. Ct. at 1751 (observing that the objective characteristics of some items, including certain kinds of pipes, establish that they are designed for use with controlled substances, as they have no otheruse besides contrived ones). Therefore, Music City does not fit the scenario posited by the Supreme Court, that of a legitimate merchant engaging in the sale of only multiple use items. Id. at 526, 114 S. Ct. at 1755 (emphasis added). 47 With respect to Music City's vagueness arguments concerning the Aristocrat snuff dispensers, small gauge mesh screens, variously sized scales, dugouts, springs used in manufacturing the dugouts, metal cigarettes (or bats) used with the dugouts, and the SmokeLess System, we conclude that § 863 is not unconstitutionally vague in application. First, with respect to the danger of arbitrary enforcement, the objective factors listed in § 863(e), in conjunction with the definition of drug paraphernalia contained in subsection (d), and the exemption of traditional tobacco products in subsection (f), supplied the detail regarding what items would qualify as drug paraphernalia to adequately limit the danger of arbitrary enforcement with respect to the items seized 7 . See Posters 'N' Things, 511 U.S. at 525-526, 114 S. Ct. 1754. While the scales and empty snuff dispensers present the closest question, Music City's sale of drug paraphernalia separates it from merchants dealing solely in multiple-use items in a manner that adequately constrains law enforcement officials from proceeding to seize scales or snuff containers from such merchants. See id.; Cf. United States v. Spy Factory, Inc., 951 F. Supp. 450, 476-77 (S.D.N.Y. 1997) (analyzing a vagueness as applied argument raised against the Wiretap Act and comparing the statute's language with that of the drug paraphernalia statute). 48 With respect to fair warning, the statute's specificity contradicts Music City's contention that the statute did not provide sufficient guidance to warn of the conduct which it prohibits. Additionally, Hoffman Estates undercuts Music City's fair warning arguments. In Hoffman Estates, the Supreme Court discussed the designed for use phrase that the Village of Hoffman Estates used in a drug paraphernalia statute very similar to the one at issue here. The Court confirmed that the phrase had an objective meaning and observed that no issue of fair warning was present in the case, because, as Flip-side conceded, the phrase referred to an item's structural characteristics. Hoffman Estates, 455 U.S. at 501, 102 S. Ct. at 1195. Similarly, in the case at bar, it is the items' likely use and structural characteristics that must be evaluated, largely eliminating fair warning as an issue. 8 49 Under these circumstances, we conclude that as applied to the items that the district court found to be drug paraphernalia, 21 U.S.C. § 863 provides fair warning of the conduct that is prohibited and sufficiently limits the danger of arbitrary enforcement.