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Don't Say it With Roses

If you're thinking of giving your sweetheart one of those little roses in a tube that bristle near the cash register of every convenience store, think twice. You might get caught up in an undercover sting. In their relentless drive to waste your tax dollars on nonsensical paraphernalia arrests, and as a culmination of an undercover operation that has been ongoing since January, 23 store clerks in Tennessee were busted for delivering drug paraphernalia, a misdemeanor, for selling the roses.

Apparently crack addicts use these little tubes to ingest their drug and while the sale and purchase are legal, the clerks were arrested for acknowledging they knew they were being used as crack pipes. Are they serious? I understand an addict's second choice is to break a car antenna off and use that. In a way these poor under-paid clerks were preventing that act of vandalism.

According to Sgt. Buddy Rhett, ''We're not asking the markets to quit selling roses,'' he said. ''We're asking them to quit selling roses to be used for crack pipes.''

Does anyone really believe these arrests will stop people from smoking crack and are not just an easy target used to pump up arrest statistics? And why aren't the officers out there solving the burglaries and other petty crimes associated with crack addiction, instead of busting a minimum wage worker for doing his job?