Posters 'N' Things, Ltd. v. United States, 511 U.S. 513, 3 (1994)

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Cite as: 511 U. S. 513 (1994)

Opinion of the Court

In March 1990, officers executed warrants to search petitioners' business premises and Acty's residence. They seized various items, including pipes, bongs,1 scales, roach clips,2 and drug diluents including mannitol and inositol. The officers also seized cash, business records, and catalogs and advertisements describing products sold by petitioners. The advertisements offered for sale such products as "Coke Kits," "Free Base Kits," 3 and diluents sold under the names "PseudoCaine" and "Procaine."

Indictments on a number of charges relating to the sale of drug paraphernalia eventually were returned against petitioners and George Michael Moore, Acty's husband. A joint trial took place before a jury in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.

Petitioners were convicted of using an interstate conveyance as part of a scheme to sell drug paraphernalia, in violation of former 21 U. S. C. § 857(a)(1), and of conspiring to commit that offense, in violation of 18 U. S. C. § 371. Petitioner Acty also was convicted of aiding and abetting the manufacture and distribution of cocaine, in violation of 21 U. S. C. § 841(a)(1); investing income derived from a drug offense, in violation of 21 U. S. C. § 854; money laundering, in violation of 18 U. S. C. § 1956(a)(1); and engaging in monetary transactions with the proceeds of unlawful activity, in violation of 18 U. S. C. § 1957. Acty was sentenced to imprisonment for 108 months, to be followed by a 5-year term

1 A "bong" is a "water pipe that consists of a bottle or a vertical tube partially filled with liquid and a smaller tube ending in a bowl, used often in smoking narcotic substances." American Heritage Dictionary 215 (3d ed. 1992).

2 The statute defines "roach clips" as "objects used to hold burning material, such as a marihuana cigarette, that has become too small or too short to be held in the hand." 21 U. S. C. § 857(d)(5).

3 The term "freebase" means "[t]o purify (cocaine) by dissolving it in a heated solvent and separating and drying the precipitate" or "[t]o use (cocaine purified in this way) by burning it and inhaling the fumes." American Heritage Dictionary 723 (3d ed. 1992).

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