at a boy Burt!!!

The pot laws are ridiculous but it's the law. If a kid accidentally has a fishing knife in his car I would let it slide, but having a knife in your boot is just dumb. They knew the pot was rong, the knife was wrong and running from the cops was wrong. They deserve what they get.

Part of me wants to say this is Darwinism at its finest [weeding out the idiots] and that they're old enough to know better but another part of me wants to say teenagers are pretty idiotic sometimes and we all make mistakes. Most of us weren't perfect teens and made bad decisions at least a few times. It would be a shame if everyone who had ever made a mistake as a teenager ended up with a felony record as an adult (since they're 17 and 18, they'll be charged as adults, right?).

Even science has concluded that the human brain isn't fully developed until about age 25 so a teenager's ability to fully grasp cause and effect isn't 100% there. That's not to excuse any bad behavior because they obviously know better than to smoke weed but it is worth noting that they tend to make decisions without thinking of the outcome and part of this has to do with being, well, underdeveloped teens. (Another fabulous example of teens not thinking of what their actions will lead to? Teen pregnancy.)

They should be punished for being on a campus and possessing an illegal substance but they shouldn't end up with a felony record when they weren't hurting anyone. Besides, our prison system is clogged full of nonviolent offenders as it is and keeping up a full prison system ain't cheap... Not only that but imagine how much attention cops give to nonviolent offenders when they should be focusing on real criminals instead...

I could go on and on but the gist of it is that teens are naive and bad at making decisions. While punishment shouldn't be removed from the equation, ruining their lives shouldn't be a part of it either. Make them do a ton of community service instead and it will benefit them as they'll learn a lesson AND it will benefit the community instead of taking money from it to pay for their stay in prison.

Long haired guy says to short haired guy:

"Hey man do you got a joint?"

Short haired guy says to long haired guy:

"No man, why?"

Long haired guy says to short haired guy:

"Cause it sure would be a lot cooler if you did."

Dazed and Confused (1993)

it's no secret that pot is not allowed, especially on a school campus.. maybe it'll teach them a lesson.

Ravished – Google ‘boot knife’. In some jurisdictions there are legal issues.

Uhhh, you must have skipped the part about running from the police and the knife. Idiot.