Shocking School Drug And Gang Survey

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rita's picture

Ya know, if you read the story, it's not the kids who say their schools are "drug-infected;" drug-infected is a drugwar term. And if you read the story, you'll also find that this "shocking" claim is nothing but hearsay and double hearsay. What's shocking is that, year after year, the drug warriors claim to be dedicated to "protecting" our kids from what we are to perceive as a deadly danger. Year after year, they fail. And year after year, they use their failure to extort more money to continue those same proven-to-fail methods on a grander scale. What's shocking is that the American people have tolerated this hogwash for 40 years.

I went to public school in the 60's and early 70's, before DARE, before random drug testing, before zero-tolerance, without the barrage of anti-drug propaganda that constantly assaults today's youth. Then, as now, illegal drugs were readily available at school. Then, as now, they were used by a very small percentage of students. We smoked pot in the parking lot, sold speed in the bathrooms and kept liquor in our lockers. And guess what? We survived. The kids I used to get high with are now lawyers, business owners, civic leaders, musicians and at least one published author. I seriously don't believe that any one of us would be better off had we spent part of our lives in prison.

That's what it's about, after all -- putting people in prison. Joseph Califano calls drugs a "malignant cancer." Well, if drugs are a "malignant cancer," then the drug war must be the miracle cure that cures the cancer by killing the patient. I say 40 years of failure is enough.