science

Drug paraphernalia

Drug paraphernalia is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Drug paraphernalia rather than just read about it. In short: The term drug paraphernalia refers to any equipment that is used to produce, conceal, and consume illicit drugs. It includes but is not limited to items such as bongs, roach clips, miniature spoons, and various types of pipes.

Key takeaways

Drug paraphernalia belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Drug paraphernalia to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Drug paraphernalia from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The term drug paraphernalia refers to any equipment that is used to produce, conceal, and consume illicit drugs. It includes but is not limited to items such as bongs, roach clips, miniature spoons, and various types of pipes.

Product types Under federal law in the United States, the term drug paraphernalia means "any equipment, product or material of any kind which is primarily intended or designed for use in manufacturing, compounding, converting, concealing, producing, processing, preparing, injecting, ingesting, inhaling, or otherwise introducing into the human body a controlled substance."

Aluminum foil "Chasing the dragon" (CTD) (traditional Chinese: 追龍; simplified Chinese: 追龙; pinyin: zhuī lóng; Jyutping: zeoi1 lung4), or "foily" in Australian English, refers to inhaling the vapor of a powdered psychoactive drug off a heated sheet of aluminium foil. The moving vapor is chased after with a tube (often rolled foil) through which the user inhales.

Banknotes (risky "drug paraphernalia")

Scales

Love rose

A "love rose" is a glass tube with a paper or plastic rose inside of it, and a bit of cork or foil on the ends to keep the rose from falling out. While ostensibly intended as romantic gifts, their primary known use is as a pipe to smoke drugs such as crack cocaine or methamphetamine. They are commonly sold at convenience stores in the United States, particularly in inner-city locations.

Drug designed equipment

Bong

A bong (also known as a water pipe) is a filtration device generally used for smoking cannabis, tobacco, or other herbal substances. Bongs have been in use by the Hmong in Laos and Thailand, as well all over Africa, for centuries.

Bulb syringe

Cocaine spoon

A snuff spoon is a tiny spoon used for nasal insufflation of powdered substances. In the ancient time the spoons were used to ingest psychotropic substances, in the 18th century − tobacco, in the 20th century − cocaine (the spoon is thus also known as a cocaine spoon or coke spoon). Some local statutes in the US treat this spoon as drug paraphernalia, defining it as a spoon that is too small and thus "unsuited for the typical, lawful uses of a spoon".

Glass blades

Spots (also known as spotting, knifers, knife hits, knife tokes, dots, hot knives, kitchen tracking blades, or bladers) refers to a method of smoking cannabis. Small pieces of cannabis are rolled (or simply torn from a larger bud) to form the spot. The practice originated in the 1970s when drops or dabs of hashish oil were smoked (three dabs of hash oil were considered to be a good standard dose). Generally, the tips of two knife blades are heated, the spot or drop of hash oil, is compressed between the two blades, and the subsequent smoke is inhaled through the nose or mouth. Another means that is gaining popularity is specially made glass presses heated with a propane or butane torch. In order to facilitate this process, a spottle (also referred to as a bowser, hooter or toker) or hitter is often, but not always, used to funnel the smoke and maximize the amount inhaled. A spottle is generally made from a funnel or cone-shaped container, such as the top (or neck) of a plastic or glass bottle or a gallon of milk/water.

One-hitter

A one-hitter has been considered drug paraphernalia in certain regions.

Pizzo

A pizzo – also known as an pilo, oil burner, bubble, tweak pipe, meth pipe, gack pipe, crank pipe, crack pipe, pookie pipe, chicken bone, or ice pipe – AKA "Billy" – is a glass pipe which consists of a tube connected to a spherical bulb with a small opening on top designed for smoking methamphetamine or freebasing crack cocaine as well as other drugs. There are some legitimate uses for these pipes including applying the hole "on the top of an eucalyptus bottle" for inhaling aromas or moisture.

Snuff bullets

Free base equipment

Contamination

Sharing snorting equipment (straws, banknotes, bullets, etc) has been linked to the transmission of hepatitis C. (Bonkovsky and Mehta) In one study, the University of Tennessee Medical Center researches warned that other blood-borne diseases such as HIV, the AIDS-causing virus, could be transmitted as well. Bongs that are cleaned regularly eliminates yeast, fungi, bacteria and pathogens that can cause several symptoms that vary from allergy to lung infection. Re-used uncleaned vapes, and vape sharing, may cause bacterial pneumonia, fungal pneumonia, and viral pneumonia.

Legality

United States In the US, enterprising individuals would sell items openly in the street, until anti-paraphernalia laws in the 1980s eventually ended the practice. With the growth of the Internet, drug paraphernalia sellers have greatly expanded their sales to a worldwide market. According to the Federal Drug Paraphernalia Statute, 21 USC 863, which is part of the Controlled Substances Act, in the US it is illegal to sell, transport through the mail, transport across state lines, import, or export drug paraphernalia as defined. Possession is usually illegal under State law. The law gives specific guidance on determining what constitutes drug paraphernalia. Many states have also enacted their own laws prohibiting drug paraphernalia. In the 1982 case Hoffman Estates v. The Flipside, Hoffman Estates, Inc., the US Supreme Court found a municipal ordinance requiring licensing for paraphernalia sales to have sufficiently distinguished marketing for illegal use to be constitutional. Government crackdowns have resulted in the arrest of sellers of recreational drug paraphernalia, such as actor Tommy Chong, who spent time in prison in 2003 for having his name used on bongs for sale via the Internet. Head shops are very much alive and well in the US, however. Generally, though, they have signs near presumable paraphernalia saying "For tobacco use only" or "Not for use with illicit drugs." Many also ban customers for referencing the use of illegal drugs when buying items. Similar policies are used in online head shops, where customers are often made to verify detailed disclaimers of their non-use of illegal substances before buying items.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Drug paraphernalia: A love rose being used to smoke crack cocaine — A love rose being used to smoke crack cocaine

Drug paraphernalia: Bongs are an example of user-specific paraphernalia, in this case for the use of cannabis. — Bongs are an example of user-specific paraphernalia, in this case for the use of cannabis.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Drug paraphernalia

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Drug paraphernalia claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Drug paraphernalia before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Drug paraphernalia ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Drug paraphernalia

In research: Drug paraphernalia appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Drug paraphernalia in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Drug paraphernalia is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Cannabis culture, Cannabis smoking, Drug paraphernalia, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Drug paraphernalia outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Drug paraphernalia in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Drug paraphernalia means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Drug paraphernalia out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Drug paraphernalia in simple terms?

Why does Drug paraphernalia matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Drug paraphernalia?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Drug paraphernalia.