‘Crack pipe’ vending machines found in Long Island

Sept. 11: Police in the Long Island town of Coram, N.Y. are looking for the people responsible for putting up vending machines that appear to be crack pipes.

Two of the small blue machines were found over the weekend and angry residents reported them to police, who then removed them. The machines have coin slots where would-be patrons insert $2 to get a pen-shaped device that has the items required to construct a pipe used to smoke crack cocaine.

“They were actually repurposed tampon dispensers,” said Jack Krieger, Communications Director for the Town of Brookhaven, CNN reported.

“Who in their right mind would even do something like that — to enable and to encourage somebody to do this?” Tony Gallo, a Coram resident, told WPIX-TV..

Police are now looking for the crack pipe vendors.

“it is not illegal to sell the pens and it is not illegal to sell a pipe, but they are considered drug paraphernalia and they were being dispensed from a machine that was installed illegally per town code,” Councilman Michael Loguercio told reporters. Upi.com