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Son Turns in Father for Growing Cannabis
(Dan Savage, Alternet.org, May 17, 2002)
There's so much wrong with the story of the Covington teenager who turned in his dad for growing pot that I hardly know where to begin. . . . If the police praise a teenager for turning in his parent, then turning in your parents for having pot in the house is praiseworthy. The mainstream media is terrified of deviating from the drug war script, but is it too much to ask the mainstream media to get its facts straight? . . . We were constantly told how bad it was in the Soviet Union," said Stroup, "and one of the things that was so awful about the Soviet Union was that Soviet kids were encouraged to report their parents to the police. A police officer was quoted in regards to the Covington story saying that the kid 'did the right thing.' Similar things were no doubt said about children in the Soviet Union who got their parents arrested. The result is, you've got a single father locked up, and a family fractured forever. It's hard to imagine why this should be the case. Who's been helped by this?" . . . "People who are good parents--good parents who happen to smoke marijuana--have lost custody of their children. Families have been torn apart." . . . The only trouble with the United States' war on pot is that pot is neither addictive nor dangerous . . . There were other options. But you called the cops, turned in your dad, and then watched as cops burst into your home, tore the place apart, and hauled your father--and your 15-year-old sister's father, and your seven-year-old brother's father--away. Your dad was a single parent; while you're old enough to be on your own, your seven-year-old brother isn't. So you not only forever fucked your relationship with your father, but you may have fucked your siblings out of a father. Nice work, Trev. Maybe the DARE people will send you a T-shirt.

posted by LoZo 9:42 AM