Admin Order 53-88-02 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

CITY fULE NO. 5 ~ - ~ -(:) 1- A FINDINGS PROPOSED DRUG PARAPHERNALIA SALES RULES The City of Eugene has set forth to adopt Administrative Rules for Drug Paraphernalia Sales pursuant to authority granted in section 3.012 of the Eugene code. These Rules are intended to provide detail for the establish- ment of license fees, the form of various applications, records and affida- vits and the establishment of procedures to implement the Drug Paraphernalia Ordinance. Opportunity to comment on these rules was given by publication in the Regis- ter Guard, a newspaper published in and of general circulation within the City from September 8, 1988 to September 12, 1988, with the deadline for submission of comments being September 26, 1988. The only written comment or objection to the proposed rules was submitted on behalf of the Independent Business Council, in which it was maintained that: (1) The rules are deficient because they do not include a definition of drug paraphernalia that "cures the vagueness of the definition of drug para- phernalia in Eugene Ordinance No. 19552", and therefore "fail to make the ordinance an ordinance that is constitutional and, hence, enforceable", and (2) The rules impose a greater sanction than state law imposes for criminal conduct by barring people who have been convicted of drug-or controlled substance-related offenses from selling drug paraphernalia. '. I have reviewed these comments and objections, and find they do not consti- tute sufficient grounds for withholding approval of the foregoing rules. In making these findings, consideration was given to comments concerning the definition of drug paraphernalia in Section 3.005 of the Eugene code, 1971. Those comments did not serve to alter the proposed rules because the analysis behind the cited authority was found to be erroneous by the U.S. Supreme Court in later decisions. Consideration was also given to the suggestion that the prohibition against selling drug paraphernalia by persons with certain drug convictions on their criminal record imposed a greater sanction than state criminal law. The applicable sections of the Eugene Code, 1971 are 3.302 and 3.304. The penal- ty if a violation occurs is not a criminal penalty, carries no jail sentence, and thus does not fall within the purview of the cited authority. In the areas of civil or administrative ordinances regulating local conditions state law does not displace local ordinances. The decision cited limited only a city's use of criminal laws. The ordinances and rules relating to the sale of drug paraphernalia are not criminal sanctions.