A drug free community is a long way off. Yet a wonderful thought. I normally applaud The Stillwater News Press editorials. Your writers illustrate well that human beings can hold opposite and contradictory beliefs to be true. The point is that the war on drugs is a monumental failure, one of the worst social disasters of the century surpassing that of Prohibition in the 20's and McCarthyism in the 50's.
Contradiction is inherent in the human mind and congruity is hard to achieve.
Intelligent, hardworking youngsters who should be in college but had to drop out because they had the misfortune to be caught with a small amount of pot would be required to work for free. You don't mention such community service can be as hard nose, draconian, arbitrary, and last up to two years, if it is like the local drug court program. The prohibitionist mentality of the war on drugs is an expression of a societal sickness, called schizophrenia, for which the nation needs treatment. Oklahoma is the most schizophrenic state when it comes to throwing non-violent people in prison or drug court programs. Among other reasons, its citizens hold two hypocritical and contradictory views, namely that it's OK for upper income professional persons to use illegal drugs responsibly, but not for the poor, the black, the Hispanic, or those who can't fight back.