California cops to auction off bongs seized from cannabis shops

News

By Katherine Donlevy

Looking for a new bong? Buy one from the California state government.

Items seized from cannabis shops — like pipes, furniture and electronics — will be auctioned off Friday in the parking lot of the California Highway Patrol’s Los Angeles headquarters.

The public auction will be the first-ever hosted by the California Department of Tax & Fee Administration in partnership with the CHP.

All the weed-related merchandise comes from 10 cannabis businesses that were busted in the past few months.

Only one of the shops was a legitimate business but was raided for evading taxes.

“Seizing and auctioning property from cannabis businesses that evade the law is a tool to recover the taxes owed to the state,” CDTFA Director Nick Maduros said in a statement.

Among the items up for grabs are crowd-control poles, cannabis manufacturing equipment and, of course, a plethora of bongs.

Less nefarious supplies, like a a snow cone machine, framed art and miscellaneous office supplies, will also be put up for auction.

Each item will be sold “as is” to the highest bidder.

Proceeds from the auction will apply toward the liabilities owed by each of the 10 debtors, the CDTFA said.

Despite making marijuana legal in 2018, California has been grappling with a thriving underground market that includes unlicensed growing operations, brash robberies from legal businesses and furtive illegal shipments to out-of-state vendors.

Last month, the bodies of six men were found in the Mojave Desert in a violent slaying authorities believe stemmed from a soured illegal cannabis deal.