Stop the War on Youth

The Drug Policy Alliance released this video today about a Massachusetts teenager serving two years in prison for selling one joint's worth of marijuana to an undercover cop in a drug-free school zone:

DPA has the skinny on why drug-free school zone laws are a bad idea:

Drug-Free Zone Laws:

* Don't protect kids. In Massachusetts, for example, seven out of ten drug-free zone incidents occurred while school was not in session, and less than one percent involved sales to youth.

* Don't have a deterrent effect. Because the areas overlap and blanket most cities, they are impossible for drug sellers to avoid and thus create no incentive to move drug transactions away from schools.

* Have a racist impact. Zones often completely cover many densely populated urban neighborhoods, where people of color are more likely to live. For example, in New Jersey, drug-free zone laws cover three quarters of Newark, in contrast to six percent of rural Mansfield Township.

Make sure to visit DPA's website and sign up for their e-mail list.