As of now, there are over 2,200 total signatures to stop HB187 and over 198 businesses that will be affected. The Florida legislature is preparing to ban ALL smoking devices and this will put a lot of people out of work and destroy lives. An act relating to retail sales of smoking pipes and smoking devices; creating s. 569.0073, F.S.; prohibiting retail sales of certain smoking pipes and smoking devices under certain circumstances; specifying criteria for the lawful sales of such items; providing a criminal penalty for unlawful sales of such items; providing an effective date. Click here for House Bill 187...

TALLAHASSEE — State Rep. Darryl Rouson is a unique figure in the Capitol, a former prosecutor and recovered crack addict who resurrected himself professionally and spiritually as a prominent community leader in his hometown.

The St. Petersburg Democrat is also making headway in his mission to crack down on so-called “head shops.”

Rouson is in the second year of his push to pass a law going after shops that offer drug paraphernalia sold as “tobacco accessories” like bongs, glass, stone, plastic, or ceramic smoking pipes, water pipes, carburetion tubes and other novelty items legally sold in stores close to college campuses or blighted areas. Although drug paraphernalia is already illegal, police have to prove someone is buying the pipe to smoke drugs to charge them.

Last year, Rouson tried to impose a 25 percent tax on the sales of those pipes and accessories, something that drew the ire of Republicans even as they were increasing taxes on cigarettes.

But with the blessing of retailers and Republicans, the House Finance and Tax Council on Thursday unanimously passed his bill, HB 187, after amending it to take out the tax increase and replace it with an outright ban on those items — unless a store derives 75 percent of its total sales from tobacco.

Although several Republicans on the panel, like Rep. Chris Dorworth, R-Lake Mary, and Kurt Kelly, R-Ocala, expressed some concern other businesses “that might sell corn-cob pipes” could be hurt, the Florida Retail Federation testified that its experts thought the changes would allow legitimate tobacco shops to be unaffected, but crack down on head shops. The bill has already cleared one Senate committee.