Pubdate: Sun, 23 Apr 2000 Source: Halifax Daily News (CN NS) Copyright: 2000 The Daily News. Contact: http://www.hfxnews.southam.ca/ Author: Peter Robertson Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n438/a09.html STUDENTS NOT DRUG DEALERS To the editor: I am writing in regard to the many letters to the editor that have been sent since the undercover drug sting at Dartmouth High. As a Grade 12 student there, I feel Parker Barss Donham wrote an informed article about the undercover operation (Just Who Are The Victims, The Sunday Daily News, April 2). The truth is, the students arrested in this operation were mere marijuana users who were labelled drug dealers by the school, school board and the Halifax Regional Police. If authorities want to keep drugs out of the school system, they should be going after high level dealers, not teenagers trying to pursue an education. Many people have responded to Parker's column both positively and negatively. However, most do not realize what really went on at Dartmouth High. I do not condone the sale of narcotics, but know that the only people who are effected by marijuana in the school are the people who choose to use it. Regardless of how many so called "drug dealers" the school tries to stop from getting an education, these people are going to continue to buy marijuana, whether at school or elsewhere. The police need to spend more of their "scarce resources" to uncover the unsolved murders in Dartmouth, and let its teenagers receive an education so one day they can be productive members of society, not future criminals. Peter Robertson, Dartmouth - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea