Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 17, 1995 TAG: 9505170063
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-10 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Melissa R. Carden, 22, co-owner of Definitely Different, was charged after Montgomery County deputies said they seized water bongs and pipes at her shop. Some pipes had marijuana leaf designs and were filled with seeds deputies suspected were marijuana, Capt. O.P. Ramsey said after Carden's arrest
But Carden and her attorney, Max Jenkins, planned to fight the misdemeanor charge in General District Court. Definitely Different sells T-shirts, Harley-Davidson items and other novelties, according to signs in the shop's windows.
Carden said one item the deputies identified as a pipe is actually an ink pen. The seized items represent only a small percentage of the business, she said. The pipes were for tobacco use, she said.
Jenkins said there are disclaimers on the products warning that the items are not to be used for smoking illegal drugs.
Skip Schwab, an assistant commonwealth's attorney, and Jenkins came to an agreement that the misdemeanor charge would not be prosecuted.
"The commonwealth desires that the laws be respected and obeyed, but does not wish to punish unfairly where one may not be fully cognizant of the law," the agreement said.
"She had information that it was legal to sell them," Schwab said. "Our point was for it not to be sold. ... We don't want to have stores selling [paraphernalia] like they used to."
A condition of the agreement is that the items police seized be returned to Carden, who is to send them back to the manufacturer.
Novelty pens containing sterile marijuana seeds will not be returned to her. Although the seeds couldn't germinate, Schwab said, there was enough marijuana residue accompanying them to be tested by a forensics laboratory.
by CNB