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“Drug paraphernalia” is a term to denote any equipment, product, accessory or material that is modified for making, using or concealing drugs, typically for recreational purposes. Remember the good old days when drug paraphernalia simply meant a burnt out roach or a little glass pipe to smoke some pot in? Those were the simpler times before my addiction exploded into the full force monster it eventually became. By the time my active using had reached its pinnacle, I would need to carry around a separate bag to contain all the tools and items needed in order to properly get high. I carried one purse for all of my day to day items like a wallet, sunglasses, cell phone, chapstick, etc. And then I always carried around a little crown royal bag to carry the REAL necessities.
Keep in mind, I have a type A personality, and can be a bit of a germaphobe as well, so while I was usually stocked to the teeth with various paraphernalia, many people may not have been this anal retentive about their equipment. If I had ever been searched by the police, I could have easily been locked away for a long time. As I look back on my past, I realize how absolutely insane I was, and I am sometimes in shock when I think about how much the ritual really was a huge aspect of my addiction.
The Cocaine Essentials
If you were an avid cocaine user such as myself, there were probably a variety of items you kept on you at all times to ensure you could be prepared wherever you went. For example, I tried to avoid using dollar bills because they are filthy, so I always had a stockpile of straws cut into little 3 inch pieces. I could also always be found with at least one razor blade (the hoard increased as my crack days came into play) and at all times, some form of a mirror or a smooth, non-porous book that I could use as a surface to lay out lines on.
When Cocaine Turned to Crack
Now we had to add a whole new plethora of items into the bag. Depending on my mood, and where I was getting high at, I would have several lighters strewn about my belongings, and I would always make sure to buy a new one before my evening began. Next came the pennies and razor blades and a skinny metal rod with a pokey end. Then the spoon. I always had a burnt spoon in my possession at all times… what an idiot. The pennies and razor blades would be eternally caked with residue, so when I ran out of money I could spend hours scraping the sides to try to get just a little bit to smoke. Then the pipe and the chore. God, I tell you I was a walking felony charge. Again, what an idiot. I am, however, grateful that I never started to shoot crack because a bottle of vinegar would have never fit into my crown royal bag alongside everything else I already carried in there.
The Dope Days
It all started with the Oxycontin. I immediately skipped over the idea of eating them because I wanted a harder, faster high, so right from the jump, I was using the straws, razor blades and mirrors to get my fix. Then when I started smoking them, it became gutted pens and tin foil. When that stopped working, and the heroin was introduced, the basic essentials were around the same as the ones used for cocaine, as I had promised myself I was only going to sniff it. However, since addiction is progressive, slowly but surely, I became more willing to use needles. Then the tools became the same for the crack, I had the spoon, the lighter, and just added a piece of cotton and a syringe to the mix. After a time when I no longer cared what I was even shooting into my body, I dropped the spoon and lighter and just started using bottle caps, and the filters from cigarettes. The new syringe every time eventually turned into one two week old needle that was dull and had a weak pull, and the water to mix it with developed into puddle water, toilet water, and there was that one time I had to use spit (it didn’t go so well).
The Meth Factory
It all started out the same, blowing lines with straws, and then moving down the ranks to the little stemmed pipe, until I graduated at the lowest of the class and started to shoot it. It’s funny how we always say “well I would never do THAT” until the day comes when we can’t get high anymore UNLESS we do that. Drug paraphernalia was all the same, the spoon, the lighter, the touch of water, the ritual. I was a slave to the ritual, always. The setup process was more than often half the fun of it all. I had to always do it myself, to ensure that every shot was made “up to par.”
Regardless of why I was doing the drugs I was doing, the drug paraphernalia was always a dead give away to my mother on how bad I really was. When I would finally come home after a week or two of being MIA, and pass out for the next 27 hours, she would obviously search through my belongings. Bless her sweet heart that woman has only smoked pot once in her life, so she had no idea which one of my tools actually did what, but she could tell there was an issue. The first time she found a crack pipe she asked if I had been smoking too much pot and if that was why I had been sleeping so much. That poor, sweet woman.
Today, after many 24 hours of sobriety, I work in treatment. I primarily handle the intakes of new clients that come in and during that process, I get to ask them if they have any outstanding legal charges that need to addressed during their stay. I wish I was lying to you when I said that one of the most common charges I see come across my desk are drug paraphernalia charges. People got caught with a needle, with tin foil, with dirty spoons and razor blades. I thank whatever God is out there watching over me that I was always too stuck on the couch to get up and try to drive anywhere. There was a time that I was moving across the country to “try and get sober” and I got pulled over in Delaware, speeding. My car was littered with straws, gutted pens lined with brown residue, and burnt up pieces of tin foil. Luckily, I had my beautiful blue eyed German Shepherd in the back seat and the police were so distracted by him that they didn’t even search the car. I definitely had a guardian angel. I could have easily been arrested on multiple counts of drug paraphernalia, and my dog would have been abandoned on the side of the highway in god knows where Delaware.
Today I no longer have to worry about having an extra bag to store all my equipment in. I don’t have to live in fear of being found carrying around a small arsenal of grocery store items in order to feel okay. I was pretty much a bag lady, homeless and carrying around empty cans and eating out of cat food tins. All I was missing was a grocery cart.
Seeking Treatment for Addiction and Alcoholism
If you or a loved one has a problem with alcoholism or addiction and want to experience recovery in a thriving community with lots of people just like you, then call the professionals at Stout Street today at 866-722-7040. Our trained staff is standing by to take your call and help you in any way we can. We know how difficult of a decision this can be and we know what it takes to ensure you find your own person path in recovery. You no longer have to do it alone, so give us a call today and find the happy and sober life you’ve always dreamed of.
It’s every parent’s worst nightmare to realize their teen or preteenis abusing substances. Whether the teen’s substance of abuse is alcoholor cocaine,the causes for concern are numerous and range from the effect thatsubstance abuse can have on academic performance and his or her futureto the risk that substance abuse can pose to his or her health and life.Unfortunately, internet access has made it easier for teens to findmore effective ways to conceal their indiscretions, but there are still anumber of ways that parents can keep an eye peeled for potentiallylethal behaviors. As such, a reliable indicator of teen substance abuse is having certain drug paraphernalia among his or her possessions.
A Parent’s Guide to Paraphernalia from Delphi Health Group on Vimeo.
WHAT EXACTLY IS DRUG PARAPHERNALIA?
Since it’s becoming increasingly difficult to detect substance abuseby observing adolescents’ behaviors alone, it’s important for parents tobe aware of the variety of material evidence that is indicative of adrug problem. Drug paraphernalia is the term used to refer to a varietyof materials that pertain to the use and abuse of various illicitsubstances. There are several different types of items that areconsidered to be drug paraphernalia, including baggies or any sort ofcontainer that’s used to store and transport illicit substances, avariety of tools that can be used to prepare a drug for consumption,tools that are required in order to do or take a substance, and so on.However, while there might be much variety in the drug paraphernaliathat exists, there are certain items that are especially common and canreliably be interpreted as indicative of substance abuse.
Pipes, Bowls & Bongs
Most would consider pipes and bowls to be the most common type ofdrug paraphernalia by a pretty significant margin. Although one mightsee such an item and associate it with smoking tobacco, they’re also astaple item for the smoking of marijuana.However, other drugs can be imbibed by using a pipe as well, includinghash, cocaine and crack cocaine, and heroin. Moreover, there’s muchvariation in the pipes that can be used to do drugs; they come in manydifferent sizes, a variety of shapes, and there are even special pipesthat have chambers to hold water — called “bongs” or water pipes —that’s mean to make drugs easier to smoke. This is why it can bedifficult to tell the difference between what a crack pipe looks likeversus a weed pipe. Not only is this type of drug paraphernalia a prettytelling sign of the use of certain drugs, but the process of smokingdrugs usually produces a pretty unusual odor and telling smoke.
Scales
When an adolescent or teen is in possession of portable scales, it’svery likely that he or she is engaging in recreational substance abuse.Virtually any street drug is weighed before being sold to a substanceuser; both the individual selling the drug and the one buying it wouldwant to ensure that he or she is not selling/buying more/less than isdeserved. Digital scales are usually about the size of a smartphone and,in fact, might even be designed to purposely resemble a cell phone as ameans of camouflage. Alternately, there are so-called “hand scales”that consists of a metal contraption that one holds by hand in order totake a manual reading from its gauge.
Baggies
The small, sandwich-sized baggies found in any grocery store arecommonly used as a container for various illicit drugs, includingmarijuana, cocaine, crack cocaine, heroin,prescription painkillers, and many other substances. They’reinexpensive, readily available, and they’re intended to be discreet;however, adolescents and teens who are frequently found to have emptybaggies in their pockets or bags will likely have been using them as adisposable container for some mind-altering substance. It’s also commonfor individuals to condense a substance into the corner of a baggie,secure it with a knot, and tear that knotted corner off the rest of thebaggie, which can be discarded and concealed easier than a wholesandwich baggie. Alternately, it’s become common for drug dealers topurchase exceptionally small baggies for the express purpose of sellingdose-sized quantities in appropriately-sized yet secure baggies.
Foil
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For most substances, there’s more than one route of administration.In particular, cocaine can either be insufflated or snorted through thenose, when it’s in powdered form. Alternately, there’s a freebase formof cocaine, which requires the drug to be solid so that it can be placedon a piece of foil with heat being applied from the underside of thefoil. As the cocaine begins to smoke, the user puts their face near tothe foil and inhales. Therefore, users who freebase illicit drugs willoften have napkin-sized pieces of aluminum foil in their possession;more often than not, the foil will be charred from the flame of alighter.
Cards, Straws & Mirrors
When someone is taking drugs that either come in a powdered form orcan be reduced to powdered form, they’ll often need to carry certaintools that will ensure they’re able to imbibe drugs when they obtainthem. For powdered substances, this typically entails credit cards, giftcards, or other types of cards that are used to crush or chop drugs;mirrors or other reflective surfaces on which the drugs can be preparedfor consumption, and straws that are used to inhale the drug through thenostrils. Oftentimes these items will have a powdery residue on them.
Syringes & Burnt Spoons
Intravenous drug useis arguably the most dangerous routes of administration as it makesindividuals more vulnerable to blood-borne illnesses that can becontracted from other users. Those who take drugs intravenously willneed two tools that are essential to intravenous administration:hypodermic syringes and spoons. The latter serves the purpose ofproviding a contained surface on which an individual can prepare a drugsolution consisting of the illicit substance and water, which is loadedinto the syringe and injected into the bloodstream. In most cases, theunderside of a user’s spoon will be charred from repeated exposure tothe flame of his or her lighter as applying heat to a drug solution isfrequently part of the preparation process. Some of the more commonintravenous drugs include heroin, DMT, and crystal meth.
Belts & Laces
After preparing a drug for intravenous administration, a user willneed some way to create a tourniquet for the location at which theyintend to inject the drug, which is usually an arm but can also be donein countless other places across the body. Since most individuals won’thave actual tourniquets, they’ll use things that are accessible andconvenient, including shoelaces and belts. As such, intravenous drugusers will frequently have long laces or belts in their possession oreven on their person that may be knotted in many places and never seemto be used for their intended purposes.
Glass Tubes & Steel Wool
Users of crack cocaine and crystal meth requirecertain supplies in order to smoke their drugs. The most common toolsfor smoking such drugs are small glass tubes and steel wool. Manyconvenience stores sell miniaturized fake roses in pencil-sized glasstubes, which are one of the most common solutions for smoking drugs andalso happens to be inexpensive and readily available. Additionally,users will require a small, marble-sized piece of steel wool to stuffinto one end of the glass tube. Oftentimes a tube used for such purposeswill have white residue along its inside and lots of black char on theend holding the steel wool.
FIND PEACE AND HEALTH AT THE PALM BEACH INSTITUTE
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There are many substances to which a person can become addicted.While some are certainly more dangerous than others, there’s no suchthing as a drug that’s “safe” to use. Substance abuse is a very slipperyslope. Nobody ever intends to become addicted, but abusing addictive,mind-altering substances is a behavior that quickly spirals out of one’scontrol. If you or someone you love would like to learn more about drugparaphernalia or addiction recovery, the Palm Beach Institute is hereto help. Call us today at (866) 804-6507 for a free consultation and assessment.Don’t become another casualty of this deadly disease. Begin the journeytoward a life of lasting health and happiness with just one phone call.