Drug Gear Being Taken Off Shelves

Ward 8 Liquor Stores Bow To Neighborhood Pressure

Ward 8 civic leaders last week announced a significant milestone: All 32 stores selling beer, wine and liquor in the ward have agreed to rid their shelves of rolling papers, crack pipes and tiny plastic zip bags that are snapped up by people who sell and use drugs.

It was a hard-fought victory that began more than a decade ago. The push has included poster drives and meetings meant to cajole and shame owners into submission.

What worked, in this case, was the tactic of challenging liquor licenses, which forced reluctant owners to the negotiating table. "We were tired" of watching the effect of the sales of drug paraphernalia, said Philip Pannell, executive director of the Anacostia Coordinating Council, which began the effort and later joined forces with advisory neighborhood commissioners to complete the task.

Drug paraphernalia is illegal, but the items are readily available at stores and carryouts across the city, partly because of lax police enforcement, residents said.

Across the city in recent years, challenging liquor licenses has become a way for even small groups of neighborhood residents to force businesses to change their practices.

Many groups have banded together to get liquor stores to stop selling single beers, and to get nightclubs and restaurants to reduce long lines and to cut down on loud noise late at night.

In Ward 8, the tactic was used to stop the sale of drug paraphernalia, including rolling papers without loose tobacco nearby, and crack pipes with plastic flowers stuck in them, ostensibly for decoration.

Cynthia Woodruff-Simms, a community resource officer for the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration, said that Ward 8 residents took advantage of a challenge process that allows residents some say in determining the rules a business must follow. Board members encourage residents and businesses to work out their differences.

"These businesses had never before been protested," she said. "This was the first time that residents had protested licenses, and they ended up with 100 percent participation."

It wasn't easy. Last summer, residents thought they had an agreement with 21 beer and wine stores, but only two attended a news conference to announce the deal. Even those two did not sign the agreement. Residents leveled charges of racism at the store owners, most of whom are Korean, charging that they placed profits ahead of improving the community.

Those differences were resolved, but Pannell acknowledged that much work remains.

"We should be mindful of our continuing failures because the supply still goes on," he said. "They go to gas stations convenience stores and ice cream trucks."

Residents now are turning their attention toward those businesses, hoping to challenge their licenses to operate through the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs.