STUDENTS NOT DRUG DEALERS

To the editor:

I am writing in regard to the many letters to the editor that have
been sent since the undercover drug sting at Dartmouth High. As a
Grade 12 student there, I feel Parker Barss Donham wrote an informed
article about the undercover operation (Just Who Are The Victims, The
Sunday Daily News, April 2).

The truth is, the students arrested in this operation were mere
marijuana users who were labelled drug dealers by the school, school
board and the Halifax Regional Police. If authorities want to keep
drugs out of the school system, they should be going after high level
dealers, not teenagers trying to pursue an education.

Many people have responded to Parker's column both positively and
negatively. However, most do not realize what really went on at
Dartmouth High. I do not condone the sale of narcotics, but know that
the only people who are effected by marijuana in the school are the
people who choose to use it.

Regardless of how many so called "drug dealers" the school tries to
stop from getting an education, these people are going to continue to
buy marijuana, whether at school or elsewhere. The police need to
spend more of their "scarce resources" to uncover the unsolved murders
in Dartmouth, and let its teenagers receive an education so one day
they can be productive members of society, not future criminals.

Peter Robertson,
Dartmouth