[420 Girl]

Australia- Staff at a Gold Coast novelty store described bongs as cream pourers and decanters when raided by environmental health officers, a court has heard.

Off Ya Tree in Surfers Paradise was the first store in Queensland to be prosecuted over the display of implements used to smoke cannabis.

Health officials raided the store in July last year and seized a range of drug paraphenalia including 295 bong chambers, 98 bong stems, and 179 bong cones.

Directors Dimos Koutsoumidis,49, and Jayne Elizabeth Ford, 50, both pleaded guilty to displaying the bong products in the store, as did their company Thendro Pty Ltd.

The court heard environmental health officers went to the Off Ya Tree store on July 6 last year - one day after the law changed in Queensland preventing the display and sale of drug implements.

The inspectors took photos of various bong components and returned three days later to raid the store.

The court was told a staff member described some of the offending products as cream pourers and decanters.

Defence counsel Kevin Kelso said his clients tried to comply with the newly-introduced laws but didn't do a complete job.

He said they should have taken all their stock off the shelves and worked backwards from there instead of taking a piecemeal approach.

"It's a tall order to coply with the legislation in three days," he said.

"Some steps were taken but they went about it the wrong way."

Mr Kelso added that 80 per cent of the product seized by health officials had since been returned to his clients as non-offending items.

He said his clients had always complied with legislation and had never been convicted of an offence.

"They are otherwise good corporate citizens," he said.

Penalties for individuals range between $300 and $10,500, and up to five times that for companies.

Magistrate Tina Previtera said officials seized a significant number of items and said the store's efforts to pass the items off as cream pourers and decanter was "optimistic".

She put Koutsoumidis and Ford on 12 month good behvaviour bonds and fined the company $750.

No convictions were recorded.

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