Drug Policy Gone Awry?

[ebenz47037]

From The Chicago Sun Times:

News Archive
Boy charged with felony for carrying sugar

February 11, 2006

BY JUSTINA WANG
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A 12-year-old Aurora boy who said he brought powdered sugar to school for a science project this week has been charged with a felony for possessing a look-alike drug, Aurora police have confirmed.

The sixth-grade student at Waldo Middle School was also suspended for two weeks from school after showing the bag of powdered sugar to his friends.

The boy, who is not being identified because he is a juvenile, said he brought the bag to school to ask his science teacher if he could run an experiment using sugar.

Two other boys asked if the bag contained cocaine after he showed it to them in the bathroom Wednesday morning, the boy's mother said.

He joked that it was cocaine, before telling them, "just kidding," she said.

Aurora police arrested the boy after a custodian at the school reported the boy's comments. The youngster was taken to the police station and detained, before being released to his parents that afternoon.

"This is getting ridiculous," said the boy's mother. "They treated my son like a criminal. .. . This is no way to treat a 12-year-old kid."

East Aurora School District officials declined to comment on the case, citing privacy issues.

The district issued a written statement, which said: "The dangers of illegal drugs and controlled substances are clear.

Although the boy shouldn't have told his friends that it was cocaine, this is ridiculous. What's left of the article said that he could get five years probation for this. Geez! If you're going to charge someone with carrying a "drug look-alike" at least give him a real sentence.

We're going to have to make sure that our kids don't carry powdered sugar (looks like cocaine), chopped macedamia nuts (looks like crack cocaine), or oregano (looks like weed). Zero tolerance policies suck!

 

[koban]

I hope the judge this comes up before slaps them down hard.

 

[ebenz47037]

I hope the judge this comes up before slaps them down hard.

But, the judge just may be as liberal as the school is and come down on the side of the zero tolerance policy.

 

[Nineveh]

"..."This is getting ridiculous," said the boy's mother...."

Yep.

FIVE years?! Eegads!

Pathetic.

 

[ebenz47037]

"..."This is getting ridiculous," said the boy's mother...."

Yep.

FIVE years?! Eegads!

Pathetic.

Five years for bringing powdered sugar to school. That's what I have the problem with. It's already bad enough that a kid can't take a Tylenol or anything like that at school. But, getting in trouble for bringing powdered sugar to school? :doh:

 

[Nineveh]

Five years for bringing powdered sugar to school. That's what I have the problem with. It's already bad enough that a kid can't take a Tylenol or anything like that at school. But, getting in trouble for bringing powdered sugar to school? :doh:

It seems this kid's biggest mistake was neglecting to attune his sense of humor to the "current times"....

 

[ebenz47037]

It seems this kid's biggest mistake was neglecting to attune his sense of humor to the "current times"....

I laughed when I read what he did. It sounds like something some of my friends would have done in the 80s. But, now, that kind of things won't get the same reaction that it would twenty years ago.

 

[Nineveh]

I laughed when I read what he did. It sounds like something some of my friends would have done in the 80s. But, now, that kind of things won't get the same reaction that it would twenty years ago.

Yep yep yep...

Things have surely changed in the last 20 years...

 

[One Eyed Jack]

Our justice system is completely insane. We live in a society that lets child molesters go and puts children in jail for taking sugar to school.

 

[BillyBob]

Our justice system is completely insane. We live in a society that lets child molesters go and puts children in jail for taking sugar to school.

Worse yet, they put children in public schools!

 

[kmoney]

That's pretty ridiculous. Some form of punishment I guess but that's too much. :nono:

 

[firechyld]

But, the judge just may be as liberal as the school is and come down on the side of the zero tolerance policy.

I'm confused. I was under the impression that "zero tolerance" policies were considered to fall on the "conservative" side of the political spectrum.

 

[firechyld]

I know that (over here, at least) you can be charged with carrying drugs if you're carrying something that looks like a drug and YOU THINK it is a drug. The same applies to mistaking one drug for another... you're charged with what you think you're carrying.

I don't know how that translates into carrying something that you know to be sugar...

Poor kid.

 

[koban]

I know that (over here, at least) you can be charged with carrying drugs if you're carrying something that looks like a drug and YOU THINK it is a drug. The same applies to mistaking one drug for another... you're charged with what you think you're carrying.

I don't know how that translates into carrying something that you know to be sugar...

Poor kid.

:freak: Can you be charged with armed robbery if you point a stick at a tree?

 

[Granite]

This is absurd...