For those who say that banning these and various other items is a waste of time, can I again put it in laymans terms .....
If you've had children: When they were 12-18 months old and crawling around on the floor, would you have considered leaving knives or forks or marbles etc lying around ?? (and if you did that what do you think your friends and family would have thought about you as a parent??
Of cause you wouldn't, because kidz are curious and will "play" with what ever they can get their hands on ............ (And as far as I'm concerned drug users are not much different to young children .... very narrow view of reality etc)
OK I agree you wont stop drug users using drugs by banning these implements, but what it might do, is stop the "new experimenters" trying these things, just because they are available ..... that might only be 1% of the total users, but in my book that would be worth it (that 1% could be my/ or your child!!)
As parents we accept that it is our job to set standards and guidelines for our kidz. If we condone our politicians "doing nothing" in regard to this grass roots kind of censorship, what kind of message are we giving our youth??
Teaching begins in the home, but it has to follow all the way down the line to be socially effective ..... ie pre-school, school, the work place etc, and we should demand our Politicians mirror a socially conscious attitude .......... Otherwise we may as well line up the bongs and the ice pipes and anything else you can think of, on the kitchen table at home and say Kidz, Go for your life!! I'm over exaggerating of course, but I'm sure the point is made. Cheers, Barney.
PS I just asked my 18 yo daughter if she knew what an ice pipe was ..... Fortunately she didn't ..........