The police seizure of 3,000 crack pipes from several Calgary stores has upset merchants who argue they are novelty items and perfectly legal.

Aftab Hussein says he was stunned to learn a handful of police burst into his convenience store with a search warrant, one of four downtown businesses raided Wednesday.

"My wife was here," he said. "They told her not to move from here." He said police harassed her "and took everything from the counter and whatever they found in the store."

Police seized marijuana and hashish at one store and what they call drug paraphernalia at the others, including two convenience stores.

Calgary police Staff Sgt. Monty Sparrow said the pipes are "made to hold a decorative little flower ... but that's not the purpose of the manufacturing, it's actually manufactured to be a crack pipe."

But store owners said they're just selling a legal product and they can't control what the customer does with it.

Hussein said the pipes, with the flower in them, could be given as a gift. He compared them to knives. He said you can cut a chicken with a knife, but you can also kill someone.

Store closed 5 hours

Store owner Rizwan Haider said the police raid cost him business.

"Almost $4,000, $5,000 in stuff and my store was closed around five hours," he said.

Still, police aren't apologizing, nor are they believing the store owners' defence.

"They're providing the tools to allow people to use the crack cocaine. It all ties into our attempt to reduce the drug problem in downtown Calgary," Sparrow said.

Police said they will soon be laying charges.