Word: graffix
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...last column on the rally to legalize marijuana gets me thinking about drugs, so late on a Friday afternoon I call Graffix--the company best-known for its designer bongs--hoping to catch someone off guard, or better yet, stoned. But when a young guy picks up the phone and I tell him I'm a Crimson editorialist, his laughter is remarkably sober...
What fascinates me about Graffix is that while (by my best guess) it stays in business by selling its bongs to pot smokers, it is able to skirt drug paraphernalia laws by maintaining that the glass tubes are tobacco delivery systems. Caught in a vice between the pressures of the market and those of the law, Graffix faces some very sticky questions: How should it respond to the fact that it helps customers get high? Should it push for legalization? Might political activism provoke a backlash that drives it out of business...
...name and title, but he replies, "my name is unimportant in the realm of things." Then our conversation takes a turn for the bizarre. He immediately volunteers that the "water pipes" are made in an "undisclosed location in Arizona" but cautions that Graffix is no longer "stressing" them. "It's a very lowkey deal," he assures me and he'd just as soon not talk about the pipes. I pepper him with questions about the company's history, ballpark production figures, etc. But he won't budge...
...surprisingly, it works--except now he's sending me wildly conflicting messages. He tells me that the pipes aren't intended for illicit drug consumption, but that what people do in their homes is their business. When I ask if the company is endorsing a presidential candidate, he says Graffix has no political agenda. On the other hand, he clarifies, the election is "something we're monitoring." When he asserts that Graffix doesn't "recommend" smoking tobacco, I press him on the point, inquiring why, then, it makes the pipes at all. This sends him into a mumbling frenzy. Eventually...
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