Taking Youth Drug Awareness to New Heights

November 29, 2005 3:43 PM

That'll teach 'em. Two 10-year old girls arrested in Florida and suspended from school for possession of... well uhm, parsely, actually.
posted by digaman (55 comments total)

An arrest report said the girls were showing classmates a plastic bag with a green leafy substance they said was marijuana.

Yes that will teach them. If I try to sell a drug, it doesn't matter if it is soap or crack. There exists an intent to sell law that doesn't matter if the actual substance is legal, if I claim it is illegal. I'm having a hard time googling but someone more well-versed in drug laws can help out.

Also, Fark?
posted by geoff. at 3:48 PM on November 29, 2005

I checked Fark and didn't find this. I was so sure.
posted by goatdog at 3:49 PM on November 29, 2005

Not only is it sillly, it also happened in Florida. That's farkbait if anything is.

And yes, you can be arrested for selling fake drugs just as you can be for selling real drugs.
posted by delmoi at 3:50 PM on November 29, 2005

If this was Fark, I'd flag it as "Sad." Draconian? Not so much.
posted by Gator at 3:54 PM on November 29, 2005

I did this as a kid. Maybe about 30 kids in grade eight all pretended to be selling coke in the school yard. It was icing sugar. I left mine in my pants pocket and my mom found it. She said she was worried until she tasted it. Which was strange because how would she know what cocaine tasted like?
posted by srboisvert at 3:54 PM on November 29, 2005

Well, they might have garnished something without authorization! We can't have that.
posted by jonmc at 3:55 PM on November 29, 2005

And yes, you can be arrested for selling fake drugs just as you can be for selling real drugs.

I imagine it would be an easy way to get yourself killed, too.
posted by jonmc at 3:57 PM on November 29, 2005

I saw that episode of Miami Vice where Crockett and Tubbs were (accidentally) trying to sell black market sugar. The law must have changed between then and now because they had to let the sugar traffickers go.

By the way, can someone show me where in the linked article it says the two girls were trying to sell the parsley? I read it that they were trying to be cool, not sell it.
posted by fenriq at 3:57 PM on November 29, 2005

Which was strange because how would she know what cocaine tasted like?

I haven't tasted cocaine, and yet I am almost 100% sure it doesn't taste like delicious icing.
posted by odinsdream at 4:01 PM on November 29, 2005

mmmmm.... delicious icing.

on topic: I nearly got the same treatment when I was 11. I guess this is just something that kids go through or something.
posted by zpousman at 4:06 PM on November 29, 2005

When I was a kid and it was really cold outside, my friends and I would exhale through our mouths and pretend we were smoking.

Kids can't help it...drugs just make people look so cool!
posted by apple scruff at 4:13 PM on November 29, 2005

Just think how pissed their mom would have been if they'd grabbed the real stash and not the fake one though?

Damned meddling kids.
posted by fenriq at 4:15 PM on November 29, 2005

Thankfully, my childhood was free of candy-cigarette dragnets and Shirley Temple sting operations.
posted by digaman at 4:18 PM on November 29, 2005

Good. They've gotta learn sometime that The Man isn't really looking out for their best interests. These kids have learned a valuable lesson: Never trust anyone in a position of authority, ever. It's an important thing for young people to know -- especially young people living in Florida.
posted by gigawhat? at 4:20 PM on November 29, 2005

I saw that episode of Miami Vice where Crockett and Tubbs were (accidentally) trying to sell black market sugar. The law must have changed between then and now because they had to let the sugar traffickers go.

*Ahem* I draw the Court's attention to that episode of Miami Vice, where...
posted by funkbrain at 4:20 PM on November 29, 2005

I wish George Bush was 10 yeas old so we could hold him personally responsible...
posted by Rubbstone at 4:44 PM on November 29, 2005

wow...I did the same exact thing way back in 7th grade (oregano in a baggy)...in Florida. It was actually Miami Vice that gave me the idea :)

Worst I got was an administrator coming up to me and calling me a dork.
posted by zerokey at 4:53 PM on November 29, 2005

My friend used to do this with tea. I think I heard that you can get charged with intent to sell a class-D substance for trying to sell asprin as ecstasy.
posted by es_de_bah at 4:53 PM on November 29, 2005

This is pure snow! It's everywhere! Have you any idea of what the street value of this mountain is?!
posted by muppetboy at 4:59 PM on November 29, 2005

They ... must attend drug awareness classes.

To teach them what marijuana really looks like, I'm sure.
posted by darkness at 5:12 PM on November 29, 2005

It's a crime in Florida to claim that a substance is a drug

Incredible, so if one scams an idiot into buying talc powder as if it was cocaine ( thus having the idiot think twice about buying that poison again) he's a criminal ? Oh come friggin on, he just parted a fool from his money, money the fool would have spent on drugs without any doubt so in an ironic reversal the scammed one should be grateful.
posted by elpapacito at 5:31 PM on November 29, 2005

Incredible, so if one scams an idiot into buying talc powder as if it was cocaine ( thus having the idiot think twice about buying that poison again) he's a criminal ?

Well, I was reading a non-fiction book about the Baltimore homicide squad and it opens with the killing of a guy who sells "burn bags," baking soda disguised as heroin. I don't imagine that would make you too popular among a constituency that's not the most clear-thinking bunch to begin with. Maybe it's to discourage that. Probably excessive though.
posted by jonmc at 5:39 PM on November 29, 2005

I'm certain that suspending these girls from school will do them good. After all, next they'll be carrying around Charlotte's Web and claiming that it's the Koran.
posted by digaman at 5:45 PM on November 29, 2005

Hey, at least it wasn't cilantro.
posted by konolia at 5:49 PM on November 29, 2005

/rimshot

tip your waitress
posted by jonmc at 5:49 PM on November 29, 2005

Well, it's apparent that the law is in place to keep people (even big bad druggies) safe. Like jonmc says, people will sell things that are masked as real drugs that will kill you (faster). Being addicted to a substance is no reason why someone should die.
posted by spiderskull at 6:09 PM on November 29, 2005

(That said, was it really necessary to send the girls to a county facility?)
posted by spiderskull at 6:10 PM on November 29, 2005

Looks like sloppy reporting, and/or misinformation, to me.

A spokeswoman for the sheriff's office said it's a crime in Florida to claim that a substance is a drug.

That seems illogical. I'd be interested in the actual statute, because what the Sheriff's office stated simply can't be true. There are plenty of circumstances where stating that something is a drug would not only not be a crime, but would be the only prudent course of action.

A child finds a bottle of prescription medicine, and is about to eat the pills, thinking they're candy. You stop them, saying "no don't eat those, those are drugs, not candy!"

Important details have been left out. My gut-feeling is that the reactionary idiots over-reacted and likely violated the children's rights, citing a nonexistent"law"
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 6:17 PM on November 29, 2005

Like jonmc says, people will sell things that are masked as real drugs that will kill you (faster).

Well, I was more saying that selling a non-lethal non-dope substance to a junkie, thus depriving him of both his dope and his money would lead to having a pissed-off drug addict on your case.

But your point stands.
posted by jonmc at 6:17 PM on November 29, 2005

that quote was from "better off dead", for those of you who haven't seen it... 1985... and starting to seem like a long time ago.
posted by muppetboy at 6:34 PM on November 29, 2005

wow...I did the same exact thing way back in 7th grade (oregano in a baggy)...in Florida.

Hah, me too, 'cept that we crushed white Smarties with our laminated ID cards as if we were cutting coke with credit cards. We would do this, keeping to ourselves; I don't think anyone ever got caught.

Incidentally, those candy cigarettes that you could blow clouds of candy smoke with were big at the time. And yes, all this was in elementary school, in Florida.
posted by May Kasahara at 6:45 PM on November 29, 2005

“An arrest report said the girls were showing classmates a plastic bag with a green leafy substance they said was marijuana”...Yes that will teach them. If I try to sell a drug, it doesn't matter if it is soap or crack.

Nowhere in that article does it say the girls tried to sell anything — they just brought the stuff to school and showed it around. As in “Nah, nah, nah. We’ve got marijuana and you don’t."?

Important details have been left out.

I'm with PareidoliaticBoy. I think if they were trying to sell the dru... I mean the parsley, Channel 25 in West Palm Beach would have been thrilled to point it out.

In any case, lucky they weren't in Singapore.
posted by LeLiLo at 7:13 PM on November 29, 2005

Well, it's apparent that the law is in place to keep people (even big bad druggies) safe. Like jonmc says, people will sell things that are masked as real drugs that will kill you (faster).

Damn sound policy, what with drug dealers being known for their universally law-abiding nature and all.
posted by arto at 7:28 PM on November 29, 2005

Although I personally think the worldwide drug laws we have nowadays are among the most stupid wastes of time and money in modern history, this specific law has its internal logic. You must treat anyone claiming to sell forbidden substances as if they are actually doing it. Otherwise you give the drug dealers a very good distraction weapon (pay lots and lots of dudes to sell fake substances while some of your pawns are selling the real ones and make the cops sort them out) and the drug users a very good and free quality control device (see who's arrested, that's the guy you're looking for next time he shows up).
posted by nkyad at 7:58 PM on November 29, 2005

I for one welcome our new parsley-selling drug lords.
posted by muppetboy at 8:05 PM on November 29, 2005

You must treat anyone claiming to sell forbidden substances as if they are actually doing it
posted by nkyad at 7:58 PM PST on November 29

Selling fake drugs is dangerous, and clearly should be illegal. But, as reported at least, that isn't what happened in this case. These children were arrested and taken to jail for pretending. You know, as children are wont.

To repeat what lelilo said, the article doesn't state that they were attempting to sell fake drugs. On the face of it, it really looks like no law was actually broken; and the Sheriff's department and school have reacted way out of all proportion to the gravity of this supposed "offence" .

That people aren't more outraged by this jack-booted behaviour astounds me.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 8:17 PM on November 29, 2005

I'm going to Florida and giving these girls some pot.
posted by iamck at 8:27 PM on November 29, 2005

Incidentally, those candy cigarettes that you could blow clouds of candy smoke with were big at the time.

I gave them out at Halloween along with bubble gum cigars and they were extremely popular. Yep, I'm going to hell.
posted by Alison at 8:35 PM on November 29, 2005

That people aren't more outraged by this jack-booted behaviour astounds me.

Years of exposure tends to make one insensitive. Can I see your papers, please?
posted by moonbiter at 10:42 PM on November 29, 2005

That people aren't more outraged by this jack-booted behaviour astounds me.

Your exaggerated level of outrage shows that you need to get out more, (or that you're a young adult who's just figured out that the world is fucked up, either way reflexive indignation is really mind numbingly boring).
posted by jonmc at 6:57 AM on November 30, 2005

Reflexive indignation is not quite as boring as unthinking cynicism.
posted by BigLankyBastard at 10:18 AM on November 30, 2005

I'm 50 years old, jonmc. Your insulting ad hominen attack is both misplaced and unwarranted. Needless assumptions about others doesn't advance one's argument. Denigrating someone else's opinions and condescendingly lecturing them about their sophistication and experience is the tactic of someone with a pretty juvenile outlook.

Since you twice refer to the selling of drugs in the absence of any drug selling referenced within the article, it's pretty obvious that you have a habit of leaping to conclusions, along with very poor attention to detail. Defending your erroneous assumptions by then personally attacking the opinion of someone with obviously higher comprehension skills reeks of intellectual insecurity, as well as outright rudeness. Your comment is boorish and uncalled for.

I probably shouldn't waste my breath addressing someone with such a puerile point of view, but if you pretend to think that arresting and jailing children for playing isn't something to be outraged about, then the U.S. is in much worse shape than I imagined.

But let's not posture that you really believe that arresting 10 year old girls for no reason is actually somehow justified. I doubt that even you are stupid enough to argue for that. Your supposedly jaded world-view is a caricature, and a damned dangerous one at that.

No, it's obvious that you misread the article, and embarrassed by your stupidity, are now attempting to cover-up your ignorant mistake.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 10:29 AM on November 30, 2005

I'm not outraged at anything in this story, more just surprised. I don't remember necessarily even knowing what marijuana WAS at 10 years old, much less thinking it would be cool to have it. Smoking, yes, alcohol, sure, I knew what those were... but marijuana?

Ahh, for the innocent bygone days of yore, or something.
posted by Fontbone at 1:05 PM on November 30, 2005

I don't think it's an exaggeration to call this jack-booted behavior. It happens far more often than it should, but I'm still pretty convinced that they were arrested on made-up charges. I'd like to see where it's illegal under law to claim a substance is a drug.

Obviously, as it's stated in the article, that makes no sense, because some substances ARE drugs, and you can't make a law that prevents someone from stating a fact. I doubt you can even write a law that prevents you from lying if no one is harmed. Such a law would clearly violate the first ammendment.

So what yo have is two innocent children being thrown in prison for violating an imaginary law, and somehow this is one of the things in the world we're just supposed to accept?
posted by dagnyscott at 1:05 PM on November 30, 2005

the kids went to prison? eh...
posted by Satapher at 3:18 PM on November 30, 2005

No, it's obvious that you misread the article, and embarrassed by your stupidity, are now attempting to cover-up your ignorant mistake.

No, it's obvious that you misread my comments. I explicitly said that I thought the authorities overreacted. My other comments were speculation about why laws about selling fake drugs exist. Maybe old age is addling your comprehension, pops.

And being right and being boring are not mutual exclusive propositions.

Your supposedly jaded world-view is a caricature, and a damned dangerous one at that.

Jaded? I just spent the last half-hour getting misty watching Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Quit trying to act like you have me figured out.
posted by jonmc at 6:16 PM on November 30, 2005

Yes Satapher. These 10 year old girls were taken to jail for playing "let's pretend".

The girls were taken to the Flagler County Inmate Facility and released to their parents.

Pretty outrageous, and very scary for the children. Hardly "boring", as jonmc asserts. Such draconian police actions need to be roundly condemned. Blithe acceptance of illegal state actions leads to totalitarianism. Imagine a nation where loss of liberty, arbitrary searches, random demands for identity papers, and wars of aggression ... Oh.

Never mind.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 6:27 PM on November 30, 2005

On preview jonmc, you're just fucking rude. Take your personal insults and jam them up your fucking ass, you obnoxious god-damn jerk.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 6:29 PM on November 30, 2005

In addition to being an ntellectual light-weight with the comprehension of a fly, you're a fucking liar.

Here are your posts, asshole...

Well, they might have garnished something without authorization! We can't have that.
posted by jonmc at 3:55 PM PST on November 29 [!]

I imagine it would be an easy way to get yourself killed, too.
posted by jonmc at 3:57 PM PST on November 29 [!]

Well, I was more saying that selling a non-lethal non-dope substance to a junkie, thus depriving him of both his dope and his money would lead to having a pissed-off drug addict on your case.

But your point stands.
posted by jonmc at 6:17 PM PST on November 29 [!]


Well, I was reading a non-fiction book about the Baltimore homicide squad and it opens with the killing of a guy who sells "burn bags," baking soda disguised as heroin. I don't imagine that would make you too popular among a constituency that's not the most clear-thinking bunch to begin with. Maybe it's to discourage that. Probably excessive though.
posted by jonmc at 5:39 PM PST on November 29 [!]


/rimshot

tip your waitress
posted by jonmc at 5:49 PM PST on November 29 [!]

Show me where you said the authorities over-reacted, you fucking dickwad.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 6:39 PM on November 30, 2005

Hee hee.
posted by weretable and the undead chairs at 6:53 PM on November 30, 2005

I know. My apologies to the community for that unwarranted outburst.

His mendacious prevaricating and after-the fact weaseling just pushed my buttons after a pretty bad day.

I'll just ignore him in the future.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 6:59 PM on November 30, 2005

Well, I was reading a non-fiction book about the Baltimore homicide squad and it opens with the killing of a guy who sells "burn bags," baking soda disguised as heroin. I don't imagine that would make you too popular among a constituency that's not the most clear-thinking bunch to begin with. Maybe it's to discourage that. Probably excessive though.

Don't cherrypick my comments you pompous ass. Or at least learn to read.

I never said that the event was boring, merely your public display of what a swell guy you are for being indignant.

I'll just ignore him in the future.

There goes my nights sleep.
posted by jonmc at 7:24 PM on November 30, 2005

"probably excessive though" should've been boldface.
posted by jonmc at 7:25 PM on November 30, 2005

You strike as the type of person who's day dosen't feel complete unless he can 1)display his moral superiority and 2) self-righteously attack someone who challenges them.

My comments were speculation on why selling fake drugs is illegal. The garnish comment was an obvious joke, and the "rimshot," was an appreciation of konolia's. Do I have to put footnotes in to avoid misunderstanding? And you have the fucking nerve to attack my comprehension.
posted by jonmc at 7:31 PM on November 30, 2005

BTW, how's it going, sockpuppet?
posted by jonmc at 7:40 PM on November 30, 2005