Student's Against Spencer's?

In Dover NH, members of a "peer-oriented drug prevention program" called Youth 2 Youth are trying to pass a town ordinance ordinance asking that stores in town not be allowed to sell products that promote drug use to children under 18; to require teens to be 18 before they can enter the store; and to put the products in a separate location so it can be monitored.

They are claiming that all items depicting marijuana leaves are promoting drug use to children. To try an make a very poor point, Youth 2 Youth sends a 9 year old to buy items with marijuana leafs on them. I doubt it is very typical for 9 year olds to ever purchase those items and if they did, shouldn't it be the parents responsibility to monitor what their children are buying and using? I know my mom wouldn't have let me have a pot leaf poster at 9 years old but she wouldn't have allowed me to have a Budweiser poster either. Many schools already have dress codes in place that prohibit clothing with drug references anyway.

In NH of all places, Youth 2 Youth is trying to limit free speech and expression and is blurring the importance of a peer to peer drug education. If a Dover teen wants to spend their earned money on a book about marijuana or super trippy black light poster they should be able to. Youth 2 Youth's efforts should be put into reducing the harms associated with drug use, not prohibiting posters, lollipops, and t-shirts. That is why approaches to reducing drug use like this do not work, like DARE they are over exaggerating, ignoring the root of the problem and alienating those students that may have different interests than they do.