Paraphernalia (pronounced par-uh-fer-neyl-yuh or par-uh-fuh-neyl-yuh)
(1) Tools,
equipment, apparatus or furnishing used in or necessary for a particular
activity (sometimes used with a singular verb).
(2) Personal
belongings (used with a plural verb).
(3) At
common law, a historic term for the personal articles, apart from dower,
reserved by law to a married woman as goods the title of which did not pass to
her husband upon marriage (used with a singular verb).
1470-1480:
From the Medieval Latin paraphernālia,
from the Ancient Greek παράφερνα (parápherna)
(goods which a wife brings over and above her dowry), the construct being παρά
(pará) (beside) + φερνή (phernḗ) (dowry), + the Latin -ālia, (noun use of neuter plural of –ālis), thus the “things additional to a
dowry”. Among the propertied classes, title
to the possessions of a wife (the dowry) passes to the husband upon marriage while
the paraphernalia which she brought remained her property.
Twenty-first century paraphernalia.
Paraphernalia in what is now the normal conversational sense
refers to the “stuff” associated with and sometimes specific to some activity,
modern usage by analogy, unrelated to status of ownership. Hooks, and sinkers are part of the
paraphernalia of fishing, brushes and easels those of painting. The word has become a favorite of police
who, when searching for drugs, don’t actually need to find any to bring
charges, drug paraphernalia being
enough to convince some judges, especially if accused has “a bit of
previous”. The more elaborate synonyms
of paraphernalia are appurtenances, accoutrements, parapherna or trappings but
most useful and certainly best understood is “stuff”.
Public service announcement: Lindsay Lohan sends the message.
In the context of the illicit use of narcotics, the term “paraphernalia” is sometimes referenced in legislation but there’s often not any attempt to list exactly which items may be considered thus, the definition hanging on purpose rather than form. It refers to any equipment, product or material used primarily or intended for use in connection with the production, preparation, or consumption of illicit drugs. Drug users can be imaginative in the adoption of hardware for purposes other than what was in the designer’s mind and a wide range of stuff has appeared as exhibits in prosecutions. In some jurisdictions, possession, sale or distribution of drug paraphernalia can be unlawful, even if there’s no evidence of the presence of narcotics. Examples of drug paraphernalia include:
(1) Smoking devices: Pipes, bongs, water pipes, hookahs, and rolling papers used for smoking marijuana, crack cocaine, or methamphetamine. Obviously, some of these items can also be used lawfully to consume (dual-use in the language of sanctions) substances like tobacco so the possibility of prosecution depends on the circumstances of each case.
(2) Syringes and needles: These typically are associated with intravenous drug use, most infamously heroin and other opioids but there are many substances (including Diazepam (Valium) and other pharmaceuticals) which can appear in liquid form.
(3) Spoons and straws: Small spoons or hollow tubes (often depicted in popular culture being rolled from high-value US$ bills) are used to “snort” drugs supplied or rendered in powdered form, of which cocaine is the best known. The popular association of spoons with cocaine led to the comparison “silver spoon vs paper plate” to contrast the user profile with that of the much cheaper crack cocaine.
(4) Grinders: Devices used to break down marijuana buds into smaller particles for smoking or vaporization. There are specialized products for this but others use the regular kitchen item intended for grinding herbs such as mint when making mint sauce. Weed smokers like to give their grinders affectionate names like “mull-o-matic”.
(5) Scales: High-precision scales are used to weigh drugs for distribution or sale. Modern electronics mean these can now be very small.
(6) Roach clips: There are metal or plastic clips used to hold the end of a joint, allowing users to smoke without risk of burning the finger tips. It’s just common sense really.
(7) Pill bottles and pill crushers: These are used to store and crush prescription medications for illicit use. In recent years there’s also been a crackdown on pill making devices which also have a legitimate purpose in communities such as the “holistic health” set who make their own pills from (non-narcotic) herbs.
(8) Freebase kits: One of the part-numbers associated with the trade of the dark web, the kits include the tools needed to convert cocaine hydrochloride into a smokable form, such as crack cocaine.
Historically, at common law, upon marriage, a woman’s assets
became possessions of her husband, title passing automatically. The exception was her paraphernalia which
tended to include things inherently personal (clothes, sewing equipment, shoes
etc) but could in certain circumstances include items of jewelry. A husband could neither appropriate nor sell
paraphernalia without her explicit consent and they did not accrue to his
estate upon death but a woman could include paraphernalia in her will. Concept is now obsolete in all common law
jurisdictions but can still be cited in disputes over wills, though only in argument
and the scope is limited.
Medieval paraphernalia.
Inherited
from Greek and Roman law, in English law, paraphernalia differed from some of
the property rights granted to women and mentioned in various iterations of the
Magna Carta (1215-1225) in that it wasn't mentioned and assumed an at times
strained co-existence with customary practice, the procedures of the Church,
common law and civil law, judges feeling often constrained to distinguish between
"our law" and "spiritual law", the latter tending always to
be more generous to a widow. All the
medieval evidence however does hit that attempts to enforce ecclesiastical law
were probably fitful although it may be that matters involving disputes about
paraphernalia were either rare or nor recorded.
Where matters are recorded, they concerned not stuff like pins and
needles but variations of apparel, a wide category which could include anything
a woman might wear and that might be shoes, gowns or jewelry; in other words,
like just about any dispute brought to court, money was involved. Some jurisdictions were more accommodating
still, The late-medieval and early-modern Court of Canterbury recognizing a
"widow's chamber" which included her bed, the contents of her
bedchamber, her apparel, her jewels and the chest in church all was
stored. There exists even records of
proto-feminist husbands counter-signing their wife's list of what she
considered her paraphernalia; a kind of early pre-nuptial arrangement. The common law courts of course always
preferred the rules of common law to any recognition of customary practice but
in the Chancery courts of equity, successive chancellors recognized the local
rules of London and York which, although abolished respectively in 1692 and
1724 and neither had anyway mentioned paraphernalia. Despite the abolition however, at least in
some instances, courts in London continued to make awards to widows based on
the old rules.
Eighteenth century paraphernalia.
The most significant definitional development regarding
paraphernalia dates from 1585 and it turned on the meaning of "apparel",
extending the meaning of the term at common law. What it did was confirm what some earlier
judgements had at least implied: That it was no longer confined to pins and
petticoats, items of little financial value, the wife in this case claiming as
paraphernalia jewels and items of precious metal. The plaintiff, citing medieval authorities,
claimed it was established law that all
the apparel of a woman was not paraphernalia but only that which was necessary
and essential, ad necessitatem, not
baubles and jewels which were ad
ornamentum. How the court might have ruled on that as a general principle
isn’t known because the matter appears to have been decided on the basis of the
social status of the widow, a viscountess, the fourth wife of the viscount and
some forty years his junior. Whether the
age difference attracted a sympathetic eye from the bench isn’t noted but the
judge agreed that “parapherna” should be allowed to a widow according to her
degree and viscountess being of a suitably high degree, he allowed he
claim. She kept the jewels. While she may not have set a precedent in the
narrow technical sense, the report of the case suggests this was not the first occasion
where judges had been called upon to define what could be considered apparel
based on the social and economic position of the widow, the viscountess
certainly seems to have started a trend.
Just about every reported case thereafter, the paraphernalia sought was
almost always jewelry.
So
there was progress and by the end of the eighteenth century a widow was likely to
keep many more of her personal possessions than women six-hundred years
earlier, both the common law and equity courts expanding the definitional framework
of paraphernalia well beyond the clothes on her back and case law existed to establish
a husband could not by the operation of his will deprive his widow of her
rights. However, much still lay ahead, a
husband’s debts in some cases still able to absorb paraphernalia, nothing
prevented a husband giving away any of his wife’s possessions during his
lifetime and a cleverly arranged trust could still defeat just about anything. Still, progress there had been.
The
legal progress attracted not just the odd viscountess but also the author Anthony
Trollope (1815–1882), one with an eye for antics of an avaricious aristocracy. In The
Eustace Diamonds (1871), he tracks the progress of the beautiful but
entirely unprincipled and recently widowed Lizzie Eustace through the dual plot
of her husband-hunting and attempts to keep a cluster of diamonds, it being consequential whether they were an heirloom and therefore
the property of her late husband’s heirs, or part of her paraphernalia and thus
her own. Most modern fiction may be
worthless but Trollop is rewarding; everyone should read the Chronicles of Barsetshire (1855-1867).
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