WHY ONLY TWO BLOCKS?

To the Editor,

I have a great idea. If declaring the area around schools to be drug
free" zones really works, then we have a solution for the entire drug
problem.

We will just expand the drug free" area by a block or so every few
months and pretty soon the whole town will be drug free. Expand it
just a little more and all of North America will be drug free."

Sounds great, and I am sure we will all enjoy a beer at the
celebration.

The truth is that anyone who proposes a drug free" zone around schools
has no idea how to deal with the problem. The reason they have no idea
how to deal with the problem is because they don't really know
anything about the subject.

The reason they don't know anything is because they have never read
even the most basic research.

I recommend that the people who are making this proposal start by
reading the collected texts of the major studies of the subject at
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer under Major Studies of Drugs and
Drug Policy.

The Consumers Union Report on Licit and Illicit Drugs in that
collection is the best place to start. If they do read, they will
discover that, historically speaking, the biggest single cause of drug
epidemics among children is silly, ill-considered anti-drug campaigns
- - like drug free" school zones.

But they probably won't read. Crusaders seldom do.

Clifford Schaffer Director DRCNet Online Library of Drug Policy

Agua Dulce, Calif.