In order to obtain tobacco accessories for the privacy of ones own home, one would have to go to Springfield or Champaign to receive these items. Now the privilege is just a hop, skip and jump away on the Strip.

Recently, tobacco accessory shops have been popping up all over the Carbondale area. There are many stores on the Strip that sell tobacco accessories in some shape, size or form to ease the demand of the public.

The items these tobacco accessory stores offer range from locally made jewelry, posters, T-shirts and stickers to tobacco pipes, dug-outs and large cylindrical water pipes, which some refer to as bongs.

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Kim Curlee, part-owner and manager of Plaza Records, 825 S. Illinois Ave., said he has decided to stay away from the cylindrical pipes and just sell the dug-outs.

I didn’t want to get into that, he said. The dug-outs have been judged consistently as legitimate tobacco items. I’m not interested in doing something that is quasi-legal.

Students find it more convenient to just walk up to the Strip for their tobacco accessory needs than to road trip up to the central Illinois cities to get their fix.

Vince Prato, a senior in physical education from Steger, said the stores in town save him a lot of gas and time.

Whenever I needed a slider for my glass tobacco water pipe I would have to go to Champaign, he said. Now I could just walk right outside my door and get anything from T-shirts to pipes.

Tim White, a senior in plant and soil science from Homewood, disagrees with the stores that sell tobacco accessories because of the way he thinks it affects the image of SIUC.

I think it is kind of an eyesore towards the students of this campus and the town, White said. It makes it look like a bunch of stoned deadbeats are going to school here.

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Jason Tharp, an employee of Puff n’ Stuff, 811 S. Illinois Ave., said there is definitely a market for smoking accessories in Carbondale, and the store he works at does not affect the town’s image.

With the new students coming in every semester, there is a new market every semester, Tharp said. That’s why this type of business will work in this town.

I don’t think the store itself is going to change anybody, he said. People are the way they are before they get to Carbondale. We are just offering what people want.

The City of Carbondale does not have a local ordinance governing what these stores sell, said a spokesperson for the city attorney’s office.

This city does not have any local ordinance concerning the sale of tobacco or its accessories, the city said. So the state law would have to be enforced.

The state law requires that a person must be at least 18 years of age in order to purchase any tobacco or accessory items.

Water pipes are a healthier way of smoking tobacco, Tharp said. That is, from a vaporizing aspect.

You go into one of these places now, and you see sign after sign saying Intended For Tobacco Use Only!’ Curlee said.