Cracking the Code

Bodegas provide the "greatest hits" of the cheap pleasures in life, from food totally devoid of nutrition to cigarettes to condoms for anonymous sex. But what you might not know is that bodegas also provide a number of cheap, bastardized highs and affordable vehicles for more expensive highs.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a better source for drug paraphernalia than the modern bodega. Jiffy Mart Foods, located in the Lents neighborhood, is no exception.

The bodega is owned by a delightful Fijian named Steven who moved to the United States sight unseen on a lottery visa in 2002. If you only look at Steven's business-casual polo shirt, big smile and polite comb-over, you might be inclined to see him in the way he wants to be seen: a standup member of the community who knows "99 percent of his customers by name," a devoted father, and the maker of fantastic broasted chicken. (Broasting, a cooking process that combines frying and pressure cooking, is a recent addition to Jiffy Mart Foods, but Steven hopes customers will one day come to his bodega specifically for his chicken.)

And yet, this man also sells crack pipes, cleverly disguised as incense, next to iPhone chargers. 

"What people do with these things, I don't know," he says. "They are adults. Everything in my store is legal."

Jiffy Mart Foods is certainly not alone in stocking these products. In fact, many, many East Portland bodegas sell drug paraphernalia and sometimes drugs themselves. Here are some of the most interesting examples we found at Jiffy Mart Foods and that you also might be able to find at your local bodega. Rembember, some of these drugs are dangerous and none are a substitute for really tasty fried chicken.

"Blooming Incense" crack pipe

This may seem like a few tiny sticks of incense in a dangerously breakable glass shell. To the crack enthusiast, however, this is like a Riedel wine glass. Some brands sell these with a small paper rose inside, which has given rise to the name you are mostly likely to hear for this product: rose pipe. What you can't see due to the packaging is a large glass bowl with a carburetor. There is another variant of rose pipe that is just a straight glass tube, which must be stuffed with fine metal filaments (such as a Chore Boy scouring pad) to create a filter before it can be used for smoking. However, with this beauty you can take a rip as soon as you remove that smelly incense.

Libigrow

Kratom

Kratom has everything you want in a convenience-store drug. It comes from the jungles of Southeast Asia, and its strange mix of mystic properties (its ability to make the user more calm and alert simultaneously) is perfect for fear-mongering local news stations. The fear comes from the fact that kratom triggers the opiate receptors in the brain, giving rise to frantic cries that it's legal heroin. Online drug forums suggest that at high doses kratom does indeed have the opiate drug family's sedative and analgesic effects. However, research has shown that kratom won't cause hypoventilation, or respiratory depression, which is a factor in most heroin overdoses. Jordan, a local head-shop employee, says he sells most of his kratom supply to bodybuilders and manual laborers who want a better fix for aching muscles than Tylenol.

Butane

Butane is the duct tape in the drug abuser's toolbox. It can be huffed or used to fill torch lighters, which are the perfect complement to your new rose pipe. But one of the most popular uses for butane is the making of hash oil and wax. With weed now legal, and inexpensive scraps of the pot plant such as shake and trim becoming commercially available, more people may be tempted to make their own hash oil or wax in a process that involves putting combustible butane next to a heat source.

Whip-it canisters

A favorite of spring-breaking fratholes and club rats alike, Whip-Its contain nitrous oxide, the stuff dentists give you when you get a root canal. Some put nitrous oxide in balloons and sell them outside clubs. Some inhale it straight from the whipped-cream canister in the walk-in fridge at the pizza joint where they wash dishes. What's your favorite way to Whip-It?

Dime bags

Who would even dream of putting drugs in something like this? Certainly not crack dealers. Depending on your jurisdiction, dime bags can actually get you in trouble. According to a 2009 Pulitzer-winning article, crooked Philadelphia cops raided and ransacked a string of immigrant-owned bodegas with the justification that these little dime bags qualified as drug paraphernalia. While the cops were accused of busting surveillance cameras, taking money and cigarettes, and basically acting like mobsters, they were never charged with crimes (because Philadelphia). All this trouble over some bags to take the world's smallest sandwich to work.

Fake piss

NyQuil

Remember that episode of South Park where the boys chug cough syrup for its psychotropic effects? While products like NyQuil and Robitussin come in at a respectable 10 percent alcohol by volume and contain a heavy dose of acetaminophen (Tylenol), it's another ingredient that provides the interesting effects. Dextromethorphan is used as a cough suppressant in NyQuil, but it's also a distant cousin of morphine and other opiates. Known in online drug forums as DXM, dextromethorphan has dissociative properties that are what your average 16-year-old cough-syrup connoisseur is experiencing when he reports viewing himself in the third person. But potential NyQuil abusers beware: In order to consume enough DXM to trip, you'd also be consuming enough acetaminophen to do some serious damage to your stomach and intestines.

Bum wine

Super Glue

Ah, glue sniffing. It’s the catalyst for the best action on Cops, and there’s a reason: It’s a very cheap way to get high. Or, rather, it’s a very cheap way to get nauseous and kind of drunk feeling. Be careful with glue huffing, though, or you might fall victim to “sudden sniffing death syndrome.” Or you might end up with a cop’s knee in your back, gravel in your bleeding nose, and your pregnant girlfriend crying. Glue sniffing only leads to a few different outcomes. 

WWeek 2015