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Not a joke Raptor!!!
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Dead serious!
The guy had some really nice well made hand forged 'Hawks for unusually good prices. The only ones confiscated were his "pipe" 'Hawks.
He got around the paraphenalia issue by leaveing the metal in the bottom of the bowl of the pipe with a small indent that showed the purchaser where it was to be drilled out with a small drill to make the pipe functional after the experience in Missouri.
The pipe bowl was complete as was the handle with the hole in it for smoking and a 3/32" or 1/8" drill in a hand drill would make it functional in just a minute or two.
It may have just been the local police flexing their muscles and wanting the 'Hawks for themselves.
But it still remains an issue that could possibly jump up and bite a lot of 'Hawk manufacturers and hobbiests who sell their work to the general public.
I think the confiscation was very wrong and another imposition of our personal freedoms.
And on a similar issue an Indin "Pipe Carrier" and Holy Man had his Sacred Stone Pipe confiscated by the personell of an Oklahoma prison when It field tested positive for marijuana when he was taking It into the prison to conduct Ceremony for the Indin inmates.
Putting any mind altering substance in a Sacred Pipe would be like substituting Whisky for Wine in the Christians Communion Cups and would be just as _Sacreligious_ and is _Never Done_.
However the Sacred Sage that the Pipes are "sealed" with does test as an illegal substance on _Field Tests Only_ as do many other innocent plants us ndns use.
When the Pipe and the Holy Man's Tobacco was sent to a state lab it came back negative for any illegal drugs and after a long hassle was finally returned to the Pipe Carrier.
No apology,no nothing.
And the case is similar because it was thought the Sacred Pipe was actually paraphenalia and not for the Intended Prayers it was meant to be used for.
And there's a lot more, but I have gotten off topic enough with this addition.
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>>>>---Yvsa-G@WebTV.net---->®
"VEGETARIAN".............
Indin word for lousy hunter.
[This message has been edited by Yvsa (edited 02-07-2001).]