Pubdate: Thu, 03 Dec 2020
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Copyright: 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.wsj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487
Author: J. Charles Sykes

OREGON ABANDONS ITS YOUTH WITH NEW LAW

It's disingenuous of Seamus R. Fallon ("Oregon Drug Law Change Can
Help Families," Letters, Nov. 24) to insist that two grams of cocaine
is one-third the amount a drug dealer would typically carry. What is
the source for such a statement? Based on my experience as a
high-school teacher, few of the drug users in their teen years are
"drug dealers." They are constant consumers, many on a daily basis, of
stimulants of any kind. Two grams of cocaine is easily quartered for
four classmates to afford a half-gram each, plenty to get amped up,
behind some brewskis, especially for diminutive teen girls. None of
the group is "a dealer" in the sense Mr. Fallon proffers his straw
man; they are end-users for the dealers.

Oregon's abandonment of its youth to the drug subculture, in looming
years of turmoil and despair, will show in time that: "As the twig is
bent, so is the tree is inclined." Can Oregon not see the forest for
the trees?

J. Charles Sykes