It was just after noon on Wednesday when a reverend from Durham made his way up to the fourth floor of the state legislative building, found the small conference room at the end of the hall and sat down in one of the only chairs left.

The Ways and Means Committee was the start of an end of a long fight for Melvin Whitley. As Representative Mark Hilton walked up to the podium, Whitley listened intently.

"It's pretty blatant - the purpose of this," Hilton said as he held up a small glass tube with a rose in it.

The rose is in a glass has been a sore subject for Whitley since 2006. It was then when he started pushing his city government to ban the small novelty sold in some convenience stores.

"When they start using the glass stem, that's when they became really addicted," he said.

Some community activists and state leaders fear addicts could use the product that made in China as a crack pipe.

"These glass stems are only sold in drug-infested neighborhoods and they're sold for $4 ... but the retailer pays 18 cents," Whitley said. "They're making money off of people's misery."

There's more than one reason Whitley started focusing on the vials.

"I'm a recovering addict and 16 years ago - it was my method of choice," he said.

Wednesday, Representative Hilton introduced House Bill 722 to the Ways and Means Committee. He had a couple of the vials with him.

"We bought these in the Raleigh area - just down the street," he said. "It is used for some legitimate reasons so we can't prohibit it. What we do is try to regulate it where people want to buy it for legitimate reasons, they can still get it."

The bill would require stores to keep a list of those people who come in to buy the vials. It would work much like the pseudoephedrine list pharmacies keep now because of the meth epidemic.

"They might think twice if they've got to put their name on a registry," said Hilton, who represents the 96 House District in Catawba County.

Hilton's area drug corps administrator initially asked him to push for the legislation.

" contacted me and asked me to introduce legislation that will help them fight drug crimes," he said.

The Ways and Means Committee approved the bill Wednesday. Now, it goes to the judiciary committee.