A Stitch in Haste

A twelve-year old boy has been arrested, charged with a felony, and suspended from school for two weeks for possessing a white powdery substance — sugar:

The boy, who is not being identified because he is a juvenile, said he brought the bag to school to ask his science teacher if he could run an experiment using sugar.

Two other boys asked if the bag contained cocaine after he showed it to them in the bathroom Wednesday morning, the boy's mother said.

He joked that it was cocaine, before telling them, "just kidding," she said.

[P]olice arrested the boy after a custodian at the school reported the boy's comments.

Nominally, the crime with which the boy is being charged is "possession of a look-alike drug." My guess is that such an offense is designed to nab drug dealers who try to con inexperienced users by peddling fake drugs.

Fair enough, but that is not the same as making mere possession of the most harmless substance on earth (War on Obesity notwithstanding) a felony. That simply cannot be a crime, especially a felony.

If the law supposes that, then the law is a ass. More and worse conduct (i.e., behaving like a drug dealer) ought to be required. Otherwise, we have lost all remaining scraps of sanity in the War on Drugs.

One final thought: Is there any fundamental difference between drug warriors (especially educrat drug warriors) who show a blind, humorless, zero tolerance mania toward anything even remotely hinting of drug use, and the rabid Islamofascists who are rampaging over some stupid drawings? I'm not sure I see any distinction.

Hat tip to Joanne Jacobs.