The only difference between a guy who smokes a joint and a guy who goes to Tazzles and gets drunk enough to throw up on himself is the drug of choice. A lot of people do drugs, and it is far more important to understand why they practice such behavior than it is to arrest them. A cure should be the goal of our society, rather than punishment. I'm also curious if Mr. Zeis felt so strongly about drugs, and the crimes they bring, before the problem moved to his neighborhood. Drugs are a social product of the world we live in.
Individuals get high in many ways for many reasons.
To punish those who use drugs with incarceration is to forget the very reason for their use. Humanity dictates that we, as a society, treat those who use drugs with compassion. To not do so is to further an arbitrary decision that states one drug is better than another. Zuri Jerdon is a senior in English from Cincinnati, Ohio. Copyright 1997 by the Iowa State Daily Publications Board.