If any of our loyal readers can figure out how to load a bowl of marijuana into a solid glass dildo, John M. Patrick of California Colorchangers, Inc., hosts of ColorChangingGlass.com and ColorChangingGlass.net, would appreciate learning himself. He'd like to prove to the federal government that that sort of thing was not what he had in mind when he began making glass dildos and other sexually-oriented paraphernalia among his specialty glass items, items the Justice Department seems to think amount to drug paraphernalia.
But proving it may cost him more than just time spent getting the evidence. When his operation was raided and he arrested last week, the government seized just about all his assets, except for several of his glass sex devices, and froze his bank account - which he says makes it difficult for him to make a March 7 court date in Pennsylvania, never mind retain an attorney in the case.
Patrick was one of 27 people raided and arrested last week on assorted drug conspiracy charges, in a move the government calls Operation Pipe Dreams, aimed at opening yet another new front in the War On Drugs by way of hitting and shutting down Internet sites involved in trafficking in drug paraphernalia. The fact that his items aren't exactly drug paraphernalia seems to matter little enough to the agents who raided him, Patrick tells AVN Online.
"The first time I knew this was illegal," Patrick said of his sexually-oriented paraphernalia, "was when I had a rifle in my face. We had no prior knowledge that this raid would be coming. We had no clue." He does now, though: He's been charged, as he described it, with conspiracy to make drug paraphernalia, offering drug paraphernalia for sale, and selling drug paraphernalia. "To me, it's all the same thing," he said of the charges. "It seems like they stacked charges on you, like having three kings top the deck."
Patrick's operation, he said, got targeted for a raid by way of the Websites themselves. Both ColorChangingGlass.com and ColorChangingGlass.net have been seized by the government - though a third Website, XXXGlass.com, was left untouched.
Visitors to ColorChangingGlass.com now are greeted with a plain white background and this message from the Justice Department: "By application of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, the Website you are attempting to visit has been restrained by the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania pursuant to Title 21, United States Code, Section 853(e)(1)(A)."
Those visiting ColorChangingGlass.net are greeted with a message from Patrick: "The federal government has frozen our bank accounts and confiscated all of our merchandise & records. We sincerely hope that this does not cause any of our customers hardship. Please be patient and we'll post the any new news as it arrives. We are consulting attorneys at this time to determine our future. With deep regards, California Colorchangers, Inc."
"It seems, somehow, that their picture of drug paraphernalia has changed," he said. "I don't know if that's from the new laws they did with the anti-terrorism things, but it seems something has changed here. It just seems that the Administration has changed their interpretation. [And] they've frozen my bank account, so it's pretty hard to... fly around the country to defend yourself when you have no money. But the government has no problem taking my tax money every year."
The raid ended with the government seizing various perfume bottles, "many styles" of decorative jars, and even small glass fairy figurines. Aside from still wondering how a glass fairy figurine could become a drug-taking device, Patrick said he can't fathom how people who merely have a good time suddenly become bad people.
"Enjoy yourself, enjoy your partner, and all of a sudden you're in this new class of people with heroin needles hanging out of your arms? It seems like they're trying to lower the standards of all kinds of industries," he said, "when people in these industries have worked very hard to make high standards."
And Patrick also said he will watch to see whether Constitutional ramifications are allowed to play out as the case continues developing. "The thing about them now taking control of the Websites," he said, "is, I don't even know if that's Constitutional. I guess we'll just have to see."
Patrick began his business operations in 1998 in a small shed in the backyard of his then home in Santa Rosa, growing the business since to include twenty employees. He can still operate and update XXXGlass.com, "but they confiscated all my assets to be able to make the site," he said.
