As a substance abuse counselor, I believe to my core that blaming substances for addiction is a lot like blaming Quarter Pounders for obesity. Substances are not responsible for addiction, people who abuse them are. More specifically, realizing that substances impede functioning is the substance abuser’s responsibility. However, it’s really hard for me to NOT blame drug dealers when teens get lost in a substance’s haze. But even then, I can’t understand why school administrators allow known drug dealers to walk freely within their school’s halls. While I don’t blame or vilify substances, I am indicting the schools for condoning drug dealing.
I mean, fine, an adolescent drug dealer is still an adolescent and should have opportunities to learn. However, when a known drug dealer earns straight “F’s” and has no interest in academics, it becomes painfully clear that he doesn’t see school as a place when he can learn. Rather, the school’s population is a captive market in which he can peddle his wares. And believe me, drug dealers know who they can target as a consumer.
Drug dealers are predators. They seek certain people who can be susceptible to drugs. Usually, it’s the outsider who doesn’t fit in that becomes the drug dealers consumer of choice. While there are teens who know about these drug dealers and tend to stay from them, others can’t. There’s something inside of them that is drawn to the message that drugs are good and that everyone who says otherwise are bad.
Make no mistake: School officials know these drug dealers. Maybe it’s because of population-based funding that they do nothing. Maybe it’s compulsory education that creates the blinders. Or, maybe, it’s simple hope that everyone can find a path and there’s always hope that even a teen drug dealer can leave the hustle and become a functional adult.
While I do think it’s always possible to find light in darkness, I don’t think a teen can simply leave the dealing life behind. Once the dealer grows accustomed to economic prosperity, there’s little reason to stop dealing. School is hard. Succeeding in school is really, really, hard. What does academic success offer the teen drug dealer when he’s making more money than he knows how to spend?
Really, the schools should expel drug dealers from their halls, especially after a 3rd offense. Once these dealers have proven beyond doubt that their intentions for being at the school are about their own ends, they need to go. I simply don’t believe that a school is served with drug dealers roaming its campus. If a teen has been busted selling drugs at school, that kid has go to go. Sure, he’ll still deal and with social media he has access to his market. However, why should taxpayers who fund the school provide him with his market?
