Paraphernalia
TheSite checks out the strange world of drug-related accessories.
Some people love their food a bit too much ('foodies') and use all sorts of paraphernalia to make their meal: knives and graters, pestle and mortar - whilst others make do with a wooden spoon. Some people love their drugs a bit too much ('druggies') and far from making do with cigarette papers and a decent tune on the stereo, they need their utensils - pipes, bongs, rolling machines ... knives and graters, pestle and mortar...
Let's leave the foodies to their culinary delights and enter the drugs kitchen...
Got any Veras?
The most famous and respectable name in drugs paraphernalia is Rizla, although they only associate themselves with tobacco. Rizla is to rolling papers as Hoover is to vacuum cleaners, for many there is no other brand. Papers, skins, Rizlas, the names are interchangeable at the 24-hour garage when you're looking for something accompany 10 B&H and a large Ribena. Rizla make a range of papers - some have corners cut for ease of rolling, and they come in a range of sizes (King Size for the Camberwell Carrot connoisseur), with different burn rates and weights. Yes mate, skinning up's a science.
If you like your papers stripey or flavoured, made of rice paper or 100% hemp, or just in one big roll, check out Rips, Rizla's slightly alternative younger cousin.
Legal status: As long as tobacco's legal so are skins. However, what you choose to mix with the inside of your Marlboros, well you know the score with that...
Bill a Bong
Those too mashed for rolling (or who want to increase their chances of forgetting their own name before the sun's up), can make a night of the marijuana and bring on the bong. Bongs come in many shapes and sizes but the principle remains the same. The bowl (or chamber) is filled with 'smoking mix', this is connected to the downpipe (or stem) which in turn runs into a chamber filled with water. You hold a flame to the mix and inhale at the same time. When you inhale, a vacuum is formed which draws the flame onto the mix which ignites and creates smoke. The smoke is drawn down the pipe, through the water and down into your lungs. Mmmmm.
The Bong will need cleaning or the tar and other gunk will block it. Yes, for the stoner who has everything, they even make Bong Cleaning Solution.
Legal status: as with papers.
Is it an E please Bob?
In 1997 the overall quality of Ecstasy dropped, highs were shorter, but more disturbingly Es were being mixed with highly dangerous substances. Ebenezer? He wasn't always good. Originating in Amsterdam, where they were less insistent on denying drug use, the E testing kit got to work in clubs to check the quality of party pills. The EZ test for example, consists of chemical reagents that react to several substances. Each of these substances has a colour change and reaction time which indicate what substances an E contains.
Legal Status: It doesn't contain any illegal substances so is completely legal in itself. According to Ewoud of Ez Test, these kits "shouldn't be regarded as drugs paraphernalia. They are a harm reduction tool, just like condoms and needle exchange programs are". The ecstasy you are testing however, is strictly illegal, CLASS A.
