The other day, I was running late, and I decided to drive to campus rather than try to catch the bus or subway. Of course, parking was a nightmare. I did not want to use the ten dollar lot on 15th and Montgomery, so I hunted the surrounding streets for a spot that did not have a two-hour time limit. I parked on Diamond Street. Near where I parked, there was an official looking sign erected on a metal pole. At first I thought it was a parking restriction sign; but the sign was actually one informing the public that the area was a “Drug Free School Zone.”

What is the purpose of this zone? Due to the War on Drugs, I have been under the impression that pretty much the entire continental United States is a Drug Free Zone. Since all United States schools are, by their very nature, contained in the United States, a zone surrounding the school is always going to be drug free. So why is the government spending our tax dollars erecting this manner of signage?

My first thought was that perhaps the signs are an attempt to take a symbolic stand against drug use by children. The sign might be a proclamation to all who would listen that this zone is even more drug free than the surrounding zones. Perhaps a drug dealer would see that sign, and in a fit of moral clarity, realize that he should ply his trade in another zone. However, this theory does not hold water. If we accept as fact that there is high demand for the drugs in the middle and high school student population, then the Drug Free Zone signs act as markers, informing the dealers that a significant portion of their customer base is in the area, flush with lunch moneys. Then the sign would seem to be counterproductive.

I have done a little research, though, and I do understand that the sign is more than symbolic. In many communities, being a purveyor of drugs in the Zone carries harsher penalties than selling drugs near, for example, a church or synagogue. The jail terms are much stiffer. However, I think that what I wrote before still holds. If the demand among middle and high school kids is so high for the drugs, then plying the drug trade in the Zone is simply a high risk/high reward situation. I am actually thinking I might leave campus and sell some drugs right now.

Everything I am saying may turn out to be silly nonsense. An MSNBC article from 2006 on the subject of these zones noted that in one study of drug arrests in three Massachusetts cities, 80% were Zone arrests, and only 1% involved minors. Further criticism in the article suggests that the penalties for Drug Free School Zone violations are draconian and disproportionately enforced on black and Hispanic folks.

All of it to ineffectively “protect the children.”