now immortalized.. HOMEWOOD — Kenneth McAllister was comparatively stoked about the candy bars, soft drinks and potato chips he would ring up as a cashier at the Citgo gas station where he worked. What harshed his mellow, though, were the bongs, glass pipes and bags of fake marijuana also being sold at the business, 2124 W. 183rd St. “This is crossing the line,” he said Thursday. “It condones pot use. Honestly, I’ve smoked in the past. But I believe everything has a time and place.” McAllister, 33, who has a 14-year-old daughter, said the station started selling the paraphernalia about three weeks ago, and he since had been seeing teenagers and junior high students coming in “gawking and drooling” over the extensive line of smoking products. At first, McAllister says, he argued about the sale of the paraphernalia with the manager, a friend of 13 years, who hired him in June. “They’re violating parents’ right to protect their children,” he said. “It’s not the gas station’s right to present these things. It’s eye candy.” When that didn’t solve his problem, he took a black permanent marker to a white T-shirt to send the following message: “SAY NO TO BONGS!!” He said he was fired Wednesday after he wore his homemade protest shirt to work. After his dismissal, he called the Homewood Police Department about the sale of the items. Homewood police Sgt. Mike MacDonald said the department had been receiving calls for two weeks concerning the gas station’s wares. Selling drug paraphernalia is illegal in Illinois, although the law says some such items are exempt if they are “marketed for, or historically and customarily used in connection with” tobacco products and other legal substances. That’s how some businesses get away with selling such items. MacDonald said Thursday that he recently had an initial conversation with the gas station’s manager, who attempted to justify the sale of the items. “(The manager) said, ‘What if you stop a kid and he has a glass pipe and has (only) tobacco in it?’” MacDonald said. “Realistically, that’s never happened to me before. We use common sense. If it had tobacco, we wouldn’t arrest (the hypothetical subject). “It’s ridiculous. I’ve never heard of someone smoking tobacco out of a bong. C’mon, who are you trying to fool?” Police followed up Thursday morning, contacting the gas station’s owner, Ramesh Gupta, and told him to stop selling the products immediately or they would take action. The products were taken off the shelves before noon. “That was the end of the story,” Gupta said. “Maybe if we were a big corporation, we’d have the money to look into it (and keep selling them). A little company like us, whatever they tell us is the right thing to do.” Gupta said other gas stations throughout the area sell such products and that they cost anywhere from $1 to $30. He said two or three customers a day bought such items. He refused to comment about McAllister, the gas station’s former-employee-turned-bong-protester. As for the suddenly jobless McAllister, he said he had scheduled an appointment with the Illinois Department of Employment Security. “I’m not upset about being fired,” McAllister said. “A job is a job is a job. There are plenty of other things I can do. It’s the principle of it *— (bongs) cannot be in front of kids.”