The beloved direct merchant commerce site Etsy (http://www.etsy.com) has recently asked all merchants holding any kind of glass smoking apparati from their shops. There is no reason for Etsy to remove, or request removal of, 100% legal merchandise. This is a blatant encroachment on individual creativity and well-being.  

There are 3,020 glass pipe listing, and 2,910 glass bowl listings on Etsy (as of 11:34 PM GMT-8 3/9/2011). This is no small group of sellers who make money (even a living) off this legitimate trade. 

Their reasoning:

" Etsy's policies state that some items are inappropriate for Etsy's marketplace, even though they may otherwise meet Etsy's selling criteria. Per the policy, you may not list the following types of items on Etsy: Drugs, drug-like substances, drug paraphernalia. These items are prohibited. 

   * items with a carburetor
   * items with a slide
   * all bongs
   * all bubblers

This is a site wide effort; you are not being singled-out. We are asking all sellers with these types of items to remove drug paraphernalia by Tuesday, March 15, 2011. "

Why did Etsy wait so long to enforce their polocies in this manner?

Thousands of skilled glass blowers make their living, partly or in whole, on their art. They have been using Etsy to do so for a long time now, and there is no reason to stunt their incomes nor their creativity. 

Tell Etsy to halt their March 15th deadline and accept the fact that these items are legal and in no way evil.