May 22, 2012
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- The Knoxville Police Dept. shut down four what-it-described-as "head shops" which authorities claim repeatedly sold illegal synthetic marijuana and drug paraphernalia. District Attorney Randy Nichols and Knoxville Police Chief David Rausch called the closures their latest step in the on going effort to eliminate centers of criminal activity.
The shops closed were: Seventh Heaven, 1821 Cumberland Ave.; Pipes & More, 2401 Dutch Valley Drive; Hi Life Wonderland 2, 5814 North Broadway Street; Mystical Orb, 4110 North Broadway Street.
KPD boarded up the shops late this afternoon, shutting them down until further notice.
Police say inside, the stores had synthetic pot, and materials used for more than just smoking tobacco.
District Attorneys say undercover officers made 19 different buys between the four "head shops." Each time they walked away with the synthetic pot or drug paraphernalia.
But they said the most alarming thing is that most of the customers buying this stuff are kids.
"From bongs to pipes to hookahs. What they've been selling to undercover officers is synthetic marijuana, which is a plant material that's coated in a compound that acts in a similar way to cannabis," said Sean McDermott with the DA's office.
Since November, undercover police bought synthetic pot five times from "Seventh Heaven." The last time was just on Wednesday.
You can't even see inside "Pipes and More." But in the past three months, officers made five buys.
Four more at "Mystical Orb," and another five at "Hi Life Wonderland 2."
"When they went in to make the purchases, they asked can you give us something that we can smoke this stuff with. And of course they would get these drug items, these items to smoke stuff and give it to them," said John Gill with the DA's office.
This is the first time the DA's office has issued nuisance injunctions to businesses for selling drug paraphernalia and synthetic pot. Gill says there have been too many emergency visits for kids who get high off of these chemicals.
"Unfortunately because it appears to be sold in a licensed business, people think this can't be too bad, but it's very dangerous," said Gill.
Two of the head shop owners live in Knoxville, but when we tried to talk to them at their homes, no one answered the door.
These are only temporary injunctions. The business owners are due in court next Thursday. They will get the chance to defend themselves and why their store should re-open.
