NEWS: And They Wonder Why It Makes You Paranoid

CULTURE: And They Wonder Why It Makes You Paranoid

After spending $60,000 on a private investigator to pose as a high school senior, Dayton, Ohio Superintendent John Frye has blown the lid off a teen conspiracy so depraved and criminal, it makes High School Confidential look like...well...High School Confidential.

High school students are partying, drinking and, yes, even on the pot after all these years. Have they learned NOTHING?



While the vice beat seems like a pretty sweet gig if you can get it, destroying innocent kids' lives with a Pre-emptive D.A.R.E. taskforce would surely raise some angry eyebrows among parents.



Ah but this is, after all, Ohio. A state that now officially deserving of its own tag on Fark.com

I'm not too sure how a school's being apparently replete with adolescent drug pushers and multiple felons is an honor deserving of huge cash awards. But then maybe we shouldn't expect anyone from Milford to be up to par in the logic department.

Somebody at that school board watching too many '21 Jump St.' reruns , I take it...?

Now I'll have that Rough Trade song going through my head all day.

I'm not sure about a few things: How old were these students? Mostly over 16? And what counts as "traffiking"? in the uk just handing someone your spliff counts as 'supply'.

I really hope those people weren't busted for small amounts, or they were busted for dealing to kids.

I don't understand the US attitude to drugs.

Sandy Howdyshell?

Man although its been 2 years sense highschool (i'm old!) i think back to my days there. Weed was everywhere. I don't think parents or a good percent of the student body at large is aware of how many drugs are really in our schools. Not that i care, cause come to think of it, years later i missed highschool for the drug connections.

Any given day you had lunch money you could find drugs. All you had to do was tell a buddy or just a few people, and before lunch like 3 kids will have already approached asking if you want to buy. If you were broke, you could always pull the "i'm so hungry and i forgot my wallet" with like 10 different people that = like 11 bucks. God i miss school because that

Man although its been 2 years sense highschool (i'm old!) i think back to my days there. Weed was everywhere. I don't think parents or a good percent of the student body at large is aware of how many drugs are really in our schools. Not that i care, cause come to think of it, years later i missed highschool for the drug connections.

Any given day you had lunch money you could find drugs. All you had to do was tell a buddy or just a few people, and before lunch like 3 kids will have already approached asking if you want to buy. If you were broke, you could always pull the "i'm so hungry and i forgot my wallet" with like 10 different people that = like 11 bucks. God i miss school because that

Best tidbit here: Sandy 'I'm so clearly retarded I deserve my improbable last name' Howdyshell, will only cough up money to fund her alma mater so long as they do cool drug busts, like on a TV show. Fucking Ohio.

2 years since and you're old? I've been out 10 years, does that make me fucking ancient?

Yeah, i was going to go with a comment along those lines.

Was that a double post, or just short term memory loss?

Here comes the unpopular opinion of the day. I'm 37, not married, no kids. Covered in tats, sideways haircut, blah blah blah your basic California "liberal-biased" punk rock guy.

For the past 25 years, I have struggled with an increasingly grievious drug addiction. How did I start? Easy. Smoking pot in the 8th grade with my skater buddies. Pot was everywhere. And up until this time one year ago, I was a hardcore meth/cocaine addict, dabbling with opiates. Let's not beat around the bush...the more you build up tolerance for one drug, the more likely you are to move on to another, etc, etc.

Would I have liked someone to give me the honest truth about drugs when I was 13? Fuck yes. Do I think kids should be getting wasted in school? Fuck no.

I absolutely 100 percent do NOT approve of prosecuting students for felony possession or intent to sell. As an addict, I am all for identifying the kids who need help, diverting them into an appropriate outpatient program along with AA or NA and finding a way to help them that DOES NOT include jail. 80 percent of the people in treatment right now tend to be self-medicating for other problems anyway.

Catch them? Sure. Prosecute them? NO. Get them into treatment so they don't end up like me? HELL yes.

Couldn't the narc just have done a song and dance number about the dangers of licking toads? It worked so well on Family Guy.

dayton is one of the most boring nothing to do dullsville places in ohio too. thats what makes it funny.

Seriously? I have to disagree. A slap on the wrist never stopped me from drinking and driving. I went through AA and have to leave because I was sick of hearing about everyone's hard times. All that did was make me disgusted and not want to look at people who trade their daughters for heroin or beat there wives into a coma on an alcohol fueled rage. But 9 time out of 10, they said they decided to seek help or were forced to get help after they had been busted. Once I was popped for a DWI I definitely started making different choices. Not because of AA. Letting them off only gives them the idea of who gives a shit if we get caught, we only have to spend a little time in rehab. That's just my perception.

According to the article 12 are juveniles which means under 18. A 17th has been arrested since.

I think "traffiking" means anything from handing your buddy a joint to selling them pills of ecstasy.

Check out some of these other choice quotes from the community.

Yes. It's a good thing we can entrap kids so we don't have to do dog searches. And it's a good thing we don't have to do dog searches otherwise we might have to just take one in ten of these students out back and shoot them in their fucking head to get the lesson across. Stop the Puffy Puff! Or else!

We (americans) are living in an absurd time... are meant to obey rsilly laws... is it any wonder a great portion of the world snickers at us.

I think the "gateway theory" has been refuted enough times that I don't need to repeat it here. More people that went on to abuse meth and heroin started out smoking cigs and drinking alcohol. Should we arrest or divert them to "get help" as well?

What about the 95% of kids that *don't* go on to harder substances. Why are we putting them in prison and sticking them in involuntary rehabs? Do you really believe this is going to *lessen* their chances of having more fucked up lives down the line?

Note: I'm most likely going to be posting an interview with MAPS director Rick Doblin on here soon weighing in on exactly this issue. I think he said it best. The cure for drug abuse is teaching kids responsible drug use.

Im the new kid in town, Lando Griffin.

Wow, what a way to lessen the student's trust in the school administrators they should be ABLE to trust. You think any of these students are going to go to a teacher or guidance counselor NOW if say, a student has a problem w/drugs, alcohol, suicidal tendencies, what have you, without a fear of police breaking in their fucking door in the middle of the night?

When will our country learn that we are NOT winning the war on drugs, and that billions of dollars are getting wasted on it that could be used for saving Social Security, reducing the class gap, making sure children don't go hungry...

Nope, that would make SENSE.

-TM

I agree that pot is not a "gateway" drug, and I don't disagree that many kids can and do smoke dope without moving on to other narcotics. In my case, I did progress from drug to drug. Other people don't necessarily do that, and I understand. I am concerned, however, that kids with predilection toward addictive behavior, i.e., heredity, depression, bipolar illness should not be treated as felons at a young age and put into the prison system.

I mean, yeah, it's totally fun to get fucked up. We all enjoy it. I did it daily for 25 years. I'm not a 12-step robot, either. I realize NA is not for everybody. But let's face facts that some kids get fucked up for a plethora of reasons not related to fun and end up wrongly branded as criminals in the process. Lets identify those kids and divert them away from jail and into programs that will help them become functioning adults.

That's all I'm saying. Catch them if you must, but please don't send them to prison.

okay the following words might sound crazy but give em a chance...

If we legalized drugs, now stay with me, we'd be able to control the distribution of the substances, the quality and the quantity. Now hold up keep listening... This would reduce the deaths and illnesses attributed to sharing of needles and other paraphernalia.... But they greatness of legalizing drugs comes in the form of the extinction of the drug dealer. Now imagine if you can go outside to the store and but some drugs, with proper ID of course, would you bother with calling your boy up and waiting an hour for him to call u back so you can take a ride over to newark even though you dont want to get shot, just so you can buy an eighth of some shitty bud because everyone else is dry, then worry about getting pulled over on your way home.

Makes a person just want to walk over to the liquor store and but a fifth of jack and a carton of smokes.

Maybe I'll just get high off Jesus.

I can't fault the school for finding creative ways to enforce existing laws and stop some of the people at the school who may be dealing drugs.

However, I don't think our drug laws are too far off from most of the world. Europe is a little bit more relaxed, but drugs are still illegal there, even if they aren't as criminalized.

You know, perhaps an undercover investigation in the school that results on kids being arrested on drug trafficking charges isn't exactly the best way to go about business, but people often overlook the fact that drugs are still illegal. Yes, even pot. I, for one, think that at least marijuana should be decriminalized, but it hasn't been and is therefore still illegal. People often seem to forget that.

That said, I would hope that they don't crucify these kids, as they are just that- kids- and they fucked up. Hopefully, just being arrested on such a serious charge would help these kids think a bit more clearly. Hopefully.

But yeah... so anyway, which one of those guys got to screw the older chick?

[Edited on Apr 08, 2005 11:22AM]

This is my position onthe issue. If we legalized drugs, we would reduce crime signifigantly, and take away a lot of money from drug dealers.

Look at Prohibition.

I love that Mrs Howdyshell refers to the detective as an undercover cop. Which she clearly was NOT.