U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized 29,000 glass pipes from an international mail holding facility in Jersey City on June 24. The pipes were part of a shipment from a Canadian company that had been previously charged with transporting drug paraphernalia into the U.S. Although the sale of such smoking accessories is legal, (provided they are marketed as being only for tobacco use--the reason even using the word "bong" in a head shop can get you thrown out the door) certain laws aimed at protecting youth prohibit the transfer of items deemed to be "drug paraphernalia" through the mail. The criteria smoking accessories must meet in order to be considered as such are laid out in U.S. Code 21 § 863(d). Officials place the market value of the pipes at around $500,000, and say they were headed for sale in New York City. Sadly, this means that St. Mark's might be short a few glow-in-the-dark skull bongs this summer.