XPost: nyc.politics, alt.drugs.pot, alt.drugs.psychedelics   
   XPost: rec.drugs.cannabis   
   From: liberty@once.net   
      
   ENTRAPMENT in New York City?   
      
   Their flyer reads:   
   "BLUE JERRY JAM every Monday night at KARMA -   
   51 First Avenue & 4th Street (East Village), 9 PM 'till after midnight.   
   No Cover   
   Hookahs & Drink Specials   
   Smoking Permitted   
   Greatful Dead Music and More  . . .   
      
   The implication is clearly that at this club called Karma, one can do as was   
   done   
   at long-gone Manhattan clubs that catered to Grateful Dead fans - smoke   
   cannabis.   
      
   A friend of mine went to check the place out on a Friday night. What he   
   observed   
   indicates the place may be a police sting operation designed to entrap   
   harmless pot smokers.   
      
   Upon entry he was asked for ID, despite being in his 60s and clearly not a   
   minor. He produced   
   his drivers license. The bar code on the back of the license was immediately   
   scanned with a   
   hand-held laser device, thus recording details of his identity and whatever   
   other information is   
   encoded on the license. According to a friend employed by lawyers as a   
   paralegal, such scanners   
   are only legal for use by the police, as when you are stopped for a possible   
   traffic violation.   
      
   A colored armband was put on his arm, impossible to remove without a knife   
   or scissors.   
   He entered to find a club with a bar and with hookahs on the tables, none in   
   use at the time. Some   
   back rooms appeared private enough to enable clandestine pot smoking, and   
   the flyer had stated   
   "smoking permitted," which in itself may be illegal in a New York City bar   
   under the existing   
   no-smoking regulations.   
      
   There were people around the bar, but no music or other activity, so he   
   didn't stay long. He did see   
   a few people he believes were undercover police however - stocky,   
   short-haired men wearing suits   
   that looked him over suspiciously - quite untypical of the clientele one   
   would expect there.   
      
   Wouldn't police time be better spent busting all the white-collar criminals   
   on Wall Street?   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)