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Why ‘limit’ the zone?
(by Walt Brown - August 20, 2008)
Two decades ago, a counter-culture acquaintance of mine decided to flaunt his anti-authority mentality by placing a large marijuana plant in his front window. He had second thoughts about the idea when the police arrived and informed him he was 856 feet from the nearest school, and thereby within the "Drug Free School Zone."
The local magistrate did not find his horticulture appealing either, and he handed down a two-year prison sentence, of which 18 months were served.
Tragedy? No. Noble and proud justice, and one of the more noble and more proud efforts in the so-called ‘war on drugs.’
But what if (let's call him “Harry”) had lived two houses away? That plant would gotten him a slap on the wrist.
I recently drove south on Ruckman Road in Hillsdale and saw the familiar “drug free school zone” sign that announced that Meadowbrook School was fast approaching.
I’ve seen those signs hundreds, if not thousands, of times, particularly since I was a teacher for many years and entered and exited “the zone” daily. But after all those “zone” sightings, it finally dawned on me: Why stop there?
A drug-free school zone is not a geographical entity like a “no fly” zone in combat. And it is not as if the greater Pascack Valley area, containing tens of thousands of people served by Community Life, live in a remote corner of the geography, with iron, cement, and rusty factories filling the remainder. In such an environment, a “drug free school zone” might make more sense.
But our towns are built by and around families, and by and large, they are families with school children. There are few, if any, streets, avenues, boulevards or lanes in Hillsdale, Woodcliff Lake, River Vale, Park Ridge, or Montvale where there are not children who attend the local schools.
Is it right only to protect them if they live within 1,000 feet of the school? I don’t think so. The initial “drug-free school zone” idea was magnificent in its day, but gone are “the pushers” with the grease-pencil moustaches who lure children to begin a life of degradation by selling them “reefer.”
Let’s make each and every one of our towns a “drug-free” environment in all the corners of all the towns.
Our police departments, in my opinion, would be only too happy to expand their current enforcement of anti-drug laws to protect the entire community, as “zone” laws and non-zone laws are quite different. The police would now have “more teeth” with which to enforce the law.
But more than that, our children deserve to be protected everywhere in their school and home community, not just in a “zone.”
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