Breaking Bad crackpipes on high street
...but shopkeepers dodge law by claiming crystal meth kit is ‘ornamental’
PIPES used for smoking cocaine and highly addictive crystal meth are being sold in shops alongside everyday groceries, The Mail on Sunday can reveal today.
The illegal pipes, costing as little as £3.50, can be bought on high streets across the country, including in a store just a stone’s throw from Kensington Palace, home of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their two young children.
In another instance, the small glass tubes, also known as Breaking Bad pipes after the popular TV series, were on offer alongside sweets in a shop near a primary school.
Last night MPs demanded a nationwide clampdown. Tory James Berry, a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said: ‘Police need to issue notices to shop owners as a first step so they cannot plead ignorance if they are taken to court, and this needs to be rolled out nationwide. Responsible owners would not stock these items.’
In the store close to Kensington Palace – once the residence of Princess Diana and now the home of her sons Prince William and Prince
‘We have a nightmare scenario on our hands’
Harry – the pipes are on sale alongside luggage and tourist souvenirs. Clearly displayed in a glass case, the pipes were on sale for £9.99.
Two miles away, at Chelsea Green Food and Wine, close to the Oratory Roman Catholic Primary School, drugs paraphernalia was on a shelf too high for customers to reach.
When we asked to see the pipes, staff looked embarrassed and initially claimed they did not know the prices. They later said that a simple clear glass tube was just £5.
On the receipt, the item was misleadingly listed as tobacco.
The pipes are also available outside London, but in more obviously specialist shops.
In Newcastle, an undercover reporter went to Hemp Nation in the district of Heaton.
When the shop assistant asked what kind of pipe they wanted, the reporter said ‘crack’, to which the assistant replied: ‘For crack it would have to be glass. It makes a huge difference.’ The reporter bought one for £5. And in Zen in Digbeth, Birmingham, a reporter bought a pipe – displayed in a glass cabinet in the back of the shop – for £3.50.
Crystal meth, or methamphetamine, became notorious thanks to the hit American TV drama Breaking Bad, in which the anti-hero Walter White sets up a drugs lab in a camper van. The drug is a powerful psychoactive substance.
Meanwhile, crack is cocaine in rock form. Both crack and crystal meth are smoked through a small glass pipe designed so that the drug can reach the brain quickly, delivering an intense ‘high’.
Under the Misuse of Drugs Act, it is illegal for shopkeepers to sell paraphernalia they believe could be used to consume drugs. When questioned by our reporters, some shopkeepers argued that they could be used for ‘ornamental’ purposes. But experts say the pipes can have only one possible purpose – to consume illegal Class A narcotics.
Sergeant Nick Clarke, of the Metropolitan Police, said: ‘If you are stocking these items, you know why you are selling them. These are clearly pipes for smoking crack cocaine or crystal meth.
‘But Section 9A of the Misuse of Drugs Act, which deals with the supply and sale of these kinds of items, is very rarely enforced because the law says you have to “believe” these items are going to be used for the consumption of illegal drugs.’
When we contacted Hemp Nation, an assistant claimed the pipe we were sold was for ‘ornamental purposes’. When our reporter pointed out that his colleague had specified it was for crack, the assistant added: ‘No comment.’
At Zen, a woman called Lisa, who described herself as the manager, said: ‘We do sell pipes. How people choose to use them is within their own control.’
At the Kensington High Street outlet, a man who would only identify himself as Hassan, said: ‘I don’t know. It depends on the person how they use these pipes. It is not up to us. Most of the shops in London sell these.’
Chris Hobbs, a retired Metropolitan Police officer who served 32 years and worked on drugs trafficking cases in the Caribbean, said: ‘This must be stopped. If children are getting hooked on crystal meth – and this must be a possibility – we have a nightmare scenario on our hands. It is catastrophic.’
The National Crime Agency recently reported that violent drug gangs are moving into British suburbs and market towns.