Poland High School taking right tack on drugs

In its cooperation with local law enforcement officials, the Poland School District could not have made a more emphatic announcement that drug-dealing students are not welcome in Poland's schools.
Drug abuse -- though by a small minority of students -- is a problem on every high school and, probably, middle school campus despite the denials of some parents, students and school administrators. But it's the schools where there are no denials, where principals and superintendents are willing to face the problem head on, that have the greatest likelihood of eliminating this scourge from their corridors.
Zero tolerance: Where zero tolerance is an action plan, not a slogan, families can be confident that their children's schools simply will not put up with disruptive elements. With drugs, there can be no pretense that dealers and users are "just being kids," or some other such mindless rationale.
Selling drugs is a serious crime. Selling drugs to youngsters is not only illegal but immoral. What kind of person would want to profit from the addiction and possible death of his friends?
The students implicated in the months-long investigation won't be expelled or suspended without due process, said Poland Superintendent of Schools Robert Zorn. But when -- and if -- their guilt is established, they will be punished.
Police made the first arrest on March 14, of a 17-year-old student who was already at a treatment center. Subsequently, four 16-year-old boys and two 15-year-olds were arrested, bringing the total to six. All of those arrested, police said, were involved in the use or distribution of Xanax, commonly used to treat anxiety orders, and OxyContin, a strong painkiller which is rapidly addictive and potentially deadly. Because of these properties, Oxycontin has been referred to as the "new heroin."
Within the last two weeks, 29 people were arrested inTrumbull County in connection with a major drug ring, which law enforcement officials believe illegally obtained as many as 36,500 OxyContin pills, yielding as much as $1.4 million to those dealing the drug illegally.
Insidious crimes: Drug trafficking and abuse are insidious crimes. Not only do they harm the dealer and the user, but at schools, they undermine the regard in which students hold each other and their community. Zorn described the high school as "deathly quiet" after the story broke. "Some kids were crying," he said, "because they don't think it can happen in Poland."
Unfortunately, it happens everywhere. But rather than being sad, Poland students should be happy that the bad apples are being culled from the basket, and that their school board and administrators want to be sure that even if "it does happen here," it doesn't happen for very long.