The Myth of the Playground Pusher

All 50 states and the District of Columbia have laws on the books that provide for harsh sentences for people who buy or sell drugs near schools. Drug-free school zone laws, however, are rarely if ever used to prosecute sales of drugs to minors. Such cases are largely a figment of our popular imagination—a lingering hangover from the drug war hysteria of the 1980s. Yet state legislatures have made the designated zones both larger and more numerous, to the point where they can blanket whole towns. In the process, they have turned minor drug offenses into lengthy prison sentences almost anywhere they occur.