[Nipplemancer]

the problem is not with his actions but with the ambiguous nature of the law which allows for one to sell water pipes, hookahs, bongs, etc. for the purpose of smoking tobacco. it is when the buyer mentions drugs that it becomes a crime for the seller. drugs never enter the picture except in speech which makes this more of a thought-crime instead of a drug crime. this guy is one of the true innocents of the drug war. tommy chong got busted by shipping bongs across state lines to a county where they were prohibited even for tobacco, drugs weren't even a factor.

[DieHard the Hunter]

> this guy is one of the true innocents of the drug war.

He would surely know that bongs and pipes and hookahs *might* be used as drug paraphernalia -- unless he has been living under a rock all his life. That hardly makes him a "true innocent" -- tho' it might make him "technically-not-guilty", which isn't quite the same thing.

By selling that stuff he is skating about as close to the edge of the ice as is humanly possible, knowing full well that he's so close to breaking the law it's not even funny. That's why he gave the guy $40 bucks: he knew he'd be in for a hassle if the police came to his store.

If he was a true innocent he would have held the perp at gunpoint and waited for the cops. However, he had the conscience of a guilty man, as his actions proved. Actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea.