Enacted in 1989 to help combat a crack-cocaine epidemic, the state's drug-free-zone law punishes dealing within 1,000 feet of a school with a mandatory two-year jail sentence. But, researchers found, the law went largely unheeded: 80 percent of drug-dealing cases occurred in a school or park zone, said William N. Brownsberger, the study's lead author.

The findings punch holes in one of the most visible instruments of school safety.

''The school environment is not safer than other areas,'' said Brownsberger, a senior criminal justice adviser with Join Together, an antidrug project at BU's School of Public Health. ''We are not successful in moving dealers away from schools.''

But some disagree, including Hampden District Attorney William M. Bennett, one of two district attorneys who let Brownsberger access their case data. Bennett pointed to another finding in the report - that 71 percent of the drug deals in a school zone occur when students aren't around - saying it shows that the law has done its job. And just four of the incidents involved selling drugs to minors, the study said.

''Hardly any cases arise while schools are in session,'' said Bennett, who agreed that the law could be tightened. ''That's because of the law.''

Researchers studied 443 drug cases in Fall River, New Bedford, and Springfield for the fiscal year 1999. The counties in which they were located, Bristol and Hampden, have relative high poverty rates, according to the report.

Using court and police records - as well as aerial photography and global-positioning satellite equipment - the researchers mapped both school zones and pinpointed where the drug deals occurred. Generally, drug-dealing was concentrated in school zones, partly because many pushers live near schools, the report said.

But ''in no cases did we have the classic picture of the pusher standing on the corner offering fifth-graders their first introduction to drugs,'' Brownsberger said. ''This law is not hitting the stereotype it was intended to hit.''

While setting a drug-free boundary of 1,000 feet from a school sounds tough, in practice, it led to irregularly shaped zones that bumped into each other so that offenders probably didn't even know that they're standing in them, Brownsberger said. He recommended cutting the zone to 100 feet but boosting the automatic penalty from two years' incarceration to five.

Some law-enforcement officials believe the shrinking of the zone would send the wrong message, but others say it would push more dealers away from schools than the current law.

''So much of the area of where people buy and sell drugs is covered by the school prohibition that there's no incentive left to do your dealing in a place that doesn't threaten students,'' said Philip B. Heymann, a Harvard Law School professor and former president Bill Clinton's first deputy attorney general.

Brownsberger also found that charges against drug offenders were often reduced - and in some cases, they weren't charged with dealing in a school zone at all. Heroin and cocaine dealers were more likely to be charged than marijuana dealers, although all illegal drugs are covered.

James Borghesani, spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Ralph C. Martin II, said Martin and other district attorneys are ''right now studying how best to narrow the distance of drug-free zones in order for the law to meet its intended purpose.''

Jack Calhoun, head of the National Crime Prevention Council and former commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services, agreed that the law could be improved for densely packed areas such as Boston, where zones overlap. But he cautioned against large-scale changes.

''You don't want to jettison the stuff,'' Calhoun said. ''Whether it's 1,000 square feet or 500 square feet ... it's the community making a statement about, `Hey, we're not going to tolerate this stuff in an area where children are.'''

This story ran on page B4 of the Boston Globe on 7/19/2001.

Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Author: Anand Vaishnav, Globe Staff
Published: July 19, 2001
Copyright: 2001 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact: letter@globe.com
Website: http://www.boston.com/globe/

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Are there any studies on that?

• Jose Melendez - owner/founder of narcosoft.com - Buy Sell Quit Drugs Online!

Many people have picked up on this line, and I'd like to add one more comment. Perhaps the reason the law is not hitting the stereotype is because the stereotype is wrong. This doesn't seem to occur to the police (big surprise); durg dealers don't hang out by school yards trying to lure innocent fifth graders into becoming dope fiends.

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Sincerely,
Kevin M. Hebert

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