A DOPE WAR

Think back to when you were in high school. Imagine wandering the
halls between classes one day when all of a sudden, fourteen police
officers burst through the doors with guns drawn, screaming at you to
get on the floor with your hands behind your head. For the students of
Stratford High School in Goose Creek, South Carolina, this is exactly
the scene that played itself out last Wednesday as law enforcement
officers conducted a drug raid ("Police, school district defend drug
raid," Nov. 7, CNN.com). This type of behavior is patently
unacceptable and indicative of a broader problem in society today --
over-the-top, abusive measures being used to combat drug use.

The Stratford High incident was hardly an isolated aberration; in
Charlottesville, many people have criticized the JADE task force for
their unorthodox methods of rounding up suspects. While invitations to
join a fake fraternity are clearly orders of magnitude away from a
guns-drawn raid, the fact remains that precincts are becoming
overzealous.

Aaron Sims, a 14 year old enrolled at Stratford, told CNN about the
police's actions towards his classmates that "they would go put a gun
up to them, push them against the wall, take their book bags and
search them." In addition to the weapons, officers restrained and
handcuffed a number of students. The school, while consenting to the
raid, said that it had no prior knowledge of the severity of the
tactics, while the police claimed that the excessive force was
necessary in case they encountered armed resistance. The best part? No
drugs or weapons were found.

The amount of resources being invested into these drug busts borders
on ludicrous -- imagine the amount of resources that went into
planning this raid; imagine how many better things those officers had
to be doing than scaring the daylights out of teenagers. The JADE
taskforce, despite planning its bust for a year and expending
innumerable man hours, came away with slightly over $20,000 in
narcotics -- a pittance.

So what lies behind this incessant need to use a sledgehammer to fix a
cracked vase? Both the answer and the solution are social. There is a
pervasive sense that drugs are corrupting the youth, and slowly
sloughing off all that is good in America. School administrators and
police chiefs feel -- understandably, considering the immense pressure
the populous places on them -- that it is their duty to save the
children, so to speak. To this noble end, officers and faculty are
willing to use whatever means necessary or unnecessary.

Unfortunately, if things continue on their current path, there will be
an increasing number of Stratford Highs and late-night Rotunda raids.
There is not nearly sufficient outrage about either incident to change
the tactics; the state is probing the Stratford case and the ACLU may
get involved, but overwhelming condemnation has not been raining down.
It needs to be.

While getting drugs out of the schools is indeed important, put things
in perspective. There is as much chance of eradicating marijuana use
as the United States upping and leaving Iraq. The more police crack
down in an Orwellian fashion, the more resistance will be bred, just
like during Prohibition. There are ways to rationally and calmly go
about lessening drug use, but shoving the barrel of a gun against a
child's head is not one of them. Education about drugs both at school
and at home, class discussions about them -- these are the tools which
should be utilized. A graphic video about STDs is far more likely to
stop kids from having sex than handcuffing them and searching their
backpack for condoms. Furthermore, if there is an extremely serious
drug problem, police might simply think about asking students who the
dealers are. Most high school students would know which way to point
them.

There is no defense for the way the police acted in Stratford High,
but rather than sanctioning the department, which was admittedly
acting in a way it thought prudent and safe, the state would be well
served evaluating why the officers felt the need to go in waving their
pistols. More broadly, Americans would be even better served
reevaluating society's stance about drugs in general. These are kids,
not criminals. Stop treating drug use as if it was equivalent to
homicide. Once the masses are calmed down, students will again be able
to go get a drink of water without fear of an armed policeman jumping
out at them.