Drug law crapshoot

If you live near a school, you might see tiny street signs about "drug-free zones" or similar language.

These signs seem to be placed 1,000 feet from schools - a radius inside which enhanced penalties are supposed to apply for sale, manufacture, use, possession, mention, or thought of illegal drugs.

Nobody wants drug dealers to sell dope to schoolchildren. Actually, the drug warriors do, because their War on Drugs is a price support for drug gangs - but most people don't. The stated purpose of the drug-free zones is to go after those who sell drugs to kids.

Of course, things don't always work out the way people expect.

Like this week, I read about a case of a man in the Midwest who grew marijuana inside his own home for his own personal use. Was he breaking the law? Surely. (I'm not saying the drug war is effective or fair - because we all know it isn't.)

But there's no evidence he intended to use the marijuana for anything but his personal use, and certainly no evidence he intended to go out on the street and sell it.

However, prosecutors' eyes lit up when they discovered something about the man's home: It happened to be within 1,000 feet of a school. They salivated because now they knew they could throw the book at him and - kablammo! - make him another statistic of the failed War on Drugs.

Talk about some really bad luck!

How is this unfair? It's unfair because he's about to be punished much more severely than someone else would have been for the same offense - just based on the luck of the draw of where he happens to live. This despite the fact that his actions bore no connection to the supposed reason for the enhanced punishment.

It's a crapshoot. It's a rigged roulette game gone horribly awry.

I know I'm going to be unfairly attacked by programmies and their fellow travelers as "pro-drug" - all because I disagree with this inconsistency. But I'm used to it. Vocal supporters of due process such as myself have had to become acclimated to these attacks in recent years, as we're endlessly assailed under the new McCarthyism.

Yeah, I know, the guy broke the law. Well, due process still applies. I don't care to hear from types who think it shouldn't apply just because they feel like it shouldn't.

If prosecutors are going to be such sticklers about the 1,000-foot radius when going after someone who grew pot for his personal use, they should be just as tough on the dope pushers who hand out Ritalin in our schools.