Drug Free School Zone

[_Simon]

I used to see these everywhere in New Jersey, but in talking with a few people, I can't find anyone who acknowledges their existence. 
1.  Were these nationwide?  Even the version in DelDOT's MUTCD is a different design than this.   
2.  When does the drug-free school zone end? There were never any "end" signs.
3.  What's with the font and color?  For a relatively standardized sign (even the yellow variants use that font) it has a very erratic font.

[NE2]

If you want to be a hipster, put an energy drink sticker on it.

[_Simon]

If you want to be a hipster, put an energy drink sticker on it.

[Zeffy]

Hillsborough Township uses them. I pass this sign all the time since it is on the street behind my house.

http://goo.gl/maps/NqF6n

And then there is this one, close to the high school.

http://goo.gl/maps/zVuN4

AFAIK, almost every school has one relatively close. All these signs are still up as of today.

[jeffandnicole]

Like many states, it is state law in NJ that someone caught with/dealing drugs within 1,000 feet of a school is subjected to mandatory prison time, so almost every school district will have these signs.  In some cases (cities), since there was nearly no area within the city that was further than 1,000 feet from a school, the signs would read 'Drug Free City' or something like that.

The goal was to deter people from selling drugs to kids at/near schools.  The law's effectiveness and punishment has been questioned though. Some states have either done away with the law, or reduced the zone to a few hundred feet.

[1995hoo]

We've had those signs in Fairfax County since sometime between 1988 and 1992 (this based on my recalling who the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors was when they first started posting those; she only served one term as Chairman). I remember the county made a big deal about the signs when they first posted them. From what I recall, the penalty for possession of illegal drugs on school grounds was considerably stricter than elsewhere.

Our signs are black on yellow and use a normal typeface, nothing like the cartoonish one seen above. Here's a Street View link to the sign outside the elementary school I attended from fall 1982 to spring 1985 (my first elementary school closed for good in spring 1982 and is now a police station). Totally unrelated, there used to be a sign around the corner in the bus lane that said "NO PARIKNG THIS SIDE OF STREET." I never got a picture of it and it's gone now, but I always found it very amusing to see a misspelled sign outside a school!

http://goo.gl/maps/405jE

[hbelkins]

Like many states, it is state law in NJ that someone caught with/dealing drugs within 1,000 feet of a school is subjected to mandatory prison time, so almost every school district will have these signs.  In some cases (cities), since there was nearly no area within the city that was further than 1,000 feet from a school, the signs would read 'Drug Free City' or something like that.

The goal was to deter people from selling drugs to kids at/near schools.  The law's effectiveness and punishment has been questioned though. Some states have either done away with the law, or reduced the zone to a few hundred feet.

AT one time, Kentucky's law was 1,000 YARDS of a school, which is nearly 2/3rds of a mile. Laws restricting where registered sex offenders can live, coupled with the density of school sites, have resulted in some problems for finding them places to live.

As for me, I'd rather that thieves and drug dealers go on a registry, rather than a sex offender. I don't care if a sex offender lives near me but I'd rather not have pushers or robbers in the neighborhood and me not know about it.

[cpzilliacus]

AT one time, Kentucky's law was 1,000 YARDS of a school, which is nearly 2/3rds of a mile. Laws restricting where registered sex offenders can live, coupled with the density of school sites, have resulted in some problems for finding them places to live.

This is correct.  Like it or not, even convicted sex offenders usually get released and need a place to live.

As for me, I'd rather that thieves and drug dealers go on a registry, rather than a sex offender. I don't care if a sex offender lives near me but I'd rather not have pushers or robbers in the neighborhood and me not know about it.

There are more than a few sex offenders that have proven to be extremely dangerous (to the point of committing serial murders) to their surroundings.  The name John Wayne Gacy comes to mind as a prime example, and he's not the only one.

As for drug pushers, I would put them out of business by legalizing and taxing most of the crap that they push (probably not PCP and probably not LSD).  Not because I am interested in consuming any of it, but because the so-called "War on Drugs" has damaged us, has damaged our nation and has damaged our judicial and correctional systems.

[agentsteel53]

pushers are the purest form of capitalists. 

cpzilliacus - LSD is fairly harmless.  it's meth that I'd be the least likely to legalize.  LSD just turns you useless for a half a day; meth makes you a sadistic piece of shit.

[cpzilliacus]

pushers are the purest form of capitalists. 

cpzilliacus - LSD is fairly harmless.  it's meth that I'd be the least likely to legalize.  LSD just turns you useless for a half a day; meth makes you a sadistic piece of shit.

The worst drug-related crimes I have seen with my own eyes involve alcohol and PCP, combined with motor vehicles, and cocaine "stand-alone."   

Alcohol was an extremely drunk driver careening north on U.S. 1 (Baltimore Avenue, four lanes with a suicide lane in the middle, no median barrier) in Prince George's County, Maryland late at night in a full-sized pickup truck, sideswiping several cars (the southbound cars were able to get out of the way enough that there were no head-on wrecks). I followed the driver until he ran off the road (after turning onto a side street), took his keys away from him (the truck may still have been drivable) and went to a house and called the state police (who had primary jurisdiction on U.S. 1 in those days) - this was a few years before cell phones were in widespread use.  The MSP came pretty fast and arrested him, though the trooper that took him away remarked to me that the suspect had hit so many cars that he was going to be "up all night" with the resulting paperwork.

The PCP incident was in the same county on the I-95 part of the Capital Beltway and involved a female driving a smallish Toyota or Subaru.  A trooper was working VASCAR speed enforcement on the left shoulder (one of the few places on the Beltway with a decently wide left shoulder), and the small car blew by me at probably 75 or 80 MPH (this was long enough ago that the 55 NMSL still applied - and on the Capital Beltway it's still posted 55 (and ignored)).  The trooper got out of his car to stop her (I don't think they do this type of stopping any longer), and she increased speed and tried to run him over.  He just barely got out of the way, ending up in the dirt face-down, got up, dusted himself off, and got in his (unmarked) car and went after her.  She did not want to yield to the blue lights, and finally several other motorists (including me) boxed her in and forced her to stop in the middle of the Inner Loop of the Beltway near the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. The driver did not want to get out of the car, and the trooper broke out the rear left-side window and got the door open - and she was ready to fight, and fight the police she did.  But several of those of us that had stopped helped the trooper to subdue her (the mass of people (the trooper plus three or four male civilians) helping was more than she could handle, even high on PCP) and he was able to handcuff her after a few minute of fighting.  She had a PCP-soaked marihuana cigaret in the ash tray smoldering - that stuff smells really foul.

A neighbor (in Silver Spring, Montgomery County) of mine was murdered in her townhome back in 1989 by a guy who was cocaine-addicted and lived nearby.  I did not see the murder, but I did find the body the next day and called the cops.  The neighbor was pretty quickly identified as a suspect, arrested and convicted, but only of second-degree murder (it was a case of jury nullification - he was (IMO) guilty of murder in the first-degree).

[agentsteel53]

yep, alcohol is a Hell of a drug.  somehow we've decided that it is America's One Permissible High. 

the moral of the first two stories is "enjoy your drugs away from your vehicle".  I'm not sure what the moral of the third one is, apart from "dude, don't kill people" - adding that the criminal was cocaine-addicted seems to not be relevant, at least not with the facts provided.

I'd charge all three with the letter of the law, regardless of what influenced them.  shitty driving is shitty driving.  assaulting the police is assaulting the police.  murder is murder.

[kkt]

pushers are the purest form of capitalists. 

Capitalism to me implies free markets, with competition.  Drug dealers don't deal on the same spot.  They either agree to different areas, or fight each other, but they don't compete on quality, price, etc. right next to each other.

[Brandon]

pushers are the purest form of capitalists. 

Capitalism to me implies free markets, with competition.  Drug dealers don't deal on the same spot.  They either agree to different areas, or fight each other, but they don't compete on quality, price, etc. right next to each other.

Welcome to the black market.  Normal capitalism with its competitive nature goes right out the window.

[agentsteel53]

legalize it and you will see the black marketeers revert to more civilized behavior.  blood is not particularly good business.

[NJRoadfan]

A variant of this sign that used reversed colors (blue sign with white text) and the same font stating "Smoke Free, Hospital Zone" used to be posted on the grounds of the local hospital. I don't know if any are still up.

[agentsteel53]

A variant of this sign that used reversed colors (blue sign with white text) and the same font stating "Smoke Free, Hospital Zone" used to be posted on the grounds of the local hospital. I don't know if any are still up.

well, that's just politeness.

a "drug free school zone" is an illusion held desperately by those too lazy to educate their kids about anything more complicated than the absolute.

[cpzilliacus]

yep, alcohol is a Hell of a drug.  somehow we've decided that it is America's One Permissible High.

Agreed - though caffeine and nicotine are also legal drugs.

the moral of the first two stories is "enjoy your drugs away from your vehicle".  I'm not sure what the moral of the third one is, apart from "dude, don't kill people" - adding that the criminal was cocaine-addicted seems to not be relevant, at least not with the facts provided.

PCP is sufficiently dangerous that it should probably still be illegal.  There are PCP-related motor vehicle deaths on a somewhat frequent basis in and around Washington, D.C.  It is marketed by corner drug dealers in D.C. selling pre-rolled marihuana joints that have been dipped in it as "dippers" or "Love Boat."

The coke addict murdered my neighbor to steal her money to score more cocaine.

I'd charge all three with the letter of the law, regardless of what influenced them.  shitty driving is shitty driving.  assaulting the police is assaulting the police.  murder is murder.

Agreed.  All were charged.  I believe the first two never went to court, because the evidence against them was pretty overwhelming, though I never learned the final disposition of those cases.

The murderer served 10 to 15 years in the Maryland Division of Corrections on his second-degree conviction, and is now out of prison. I talked to one of the jurors after the case was done, and he told me one member of the jury did not want to convict for reasons that had nothing to do with the facts of the case.  The other 11 wanted to convict for first degree murder and were adamant that they would not acquit the defendant.  After two weeks of going back and  forth, they got the hold-out to go along with a second-degree conviction. Most unfortunate.

[agentsteel53]

one member of the jury did not want to convict for reasons that had nothing to do with the facts of the case.

"I can't help it; Chewbacca lives on Endor!"

[cpzilliacus]

3.  What's with the font and color?  For a relatively standardized sign (even the yellow variants use that font) it has a very erratic font.

Getting back on-topic, this looks like a hideous nightmare from the early 1970's. 

Such fonts were popular back then for a variety of things (not usually including traffic control devices).

[Alps]

Wait, are you telling me that this isn't all across the country? I'm so used to these that I'm oblivious to them not existing elsewhere.

[NE2]

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=33.994547,-83.720629&spn=0.000855,0.001772&t=k&z=20&layer=c&cbll=33.994547,-83.720629&panoid=kc1096dGwLNSSe4FOqNQjA&cbp=12,310.12,,1,6.64

[hbelkins]

Wait, are you telling me that this isn't all across the country? I'm so used to these that I'm oblivious to them not existing elsewhere.

I don't see that particular font in use everywhere. And I agree with the comment about it looking like something from out of the 70s.

As for the various drugs, meth is somewhat unusual in that it doesn't have to be dealt. You can make it yourself if you want, although I'm not sure why someone would want to ingest an intoxicant made from, among other ingredients,  ammonia, batteries and Drano.

[kkt]

You can make it yourself if you're reasonably skilled in chemistry.  If you're not as skilled as you think, you can blow up yourself, your house, and half your block.

[agentsteel53]

As for the various drugs, meth is somewhat unusual in that it doesn't have to be dealt. You can make it yourself if you want, although I'm not sure why someone would want to ingest an intoxicant made from, among other ingredients,  ammonia, batteries and Drano.

I believe gasoline is a primary ingredient in the cocaine refinement process.  other powdered drugs have all kinds of similar manufacturing processes.

[Dr Frankenstein]

I'm sure I've seen one of those in Connecticut.

EDIT: Okay, it's actually a little different. http://www.flickr.com/photos/13137334@N06/7688327406/