DRUG-FREE ZONES DO WORK

This letter is in regards to Russell Barth's letter to the editor of Dec.
31, 2004.

As a parent with a child attending a school with a "Drug-free zone" (KSS) I
am proud of what my child's school and the police are doing.

Drugs have no place in schools. And when our children are at an
impressionable age, anything our police and schools do to help protect them
should be given credit, not shot down by some loud mouth in Ottawa whose
uses his group 'Education for a Sensible Drug Policy' as a platform to
showboat.

I question why they are targeting a good practice of our school system.

Not only will the children not be able to carry drugs into the school,
neither will dealers be able to hang out in the parking lots.

Remember, we are talking about school kids under the age of 19.

Our schools are not prison, rather they are educational institutions, not
places to hang out and do drugs.

My children do not want to do drugs or to have drugs around them. They do
not want their friend to do drugs, and do not want to be in an environment
with others who are on drugs. Times are changing and "Just say no to drugs"
is working.

Drug free zones do work.

Mary Anne Erickson

Qualicum Beach