<p>I suppose that all these kids were addicted, or at least heavy users. If not, it’s hard to imagine why they thought this was a good idea.</p>
<p>Many “ghetto” drugpins don’t use. They know better than anyone else the personal cost of drug use.</p>
<p>Mostly upland birds, but occasionally wild boar and coyote and other things I don’t care to think about and don’t hunt myself. H owns a handgun like the one in the pic for hunting. I know he also wanted to buy one that looks like the AR-15, and I objected, but he may have still bought it, I don’t remember and haven’t looked in the safe for awhile because I don’t go much any more but he does quite often both here and out of state and country usually with his hunting buddy from PA, actually. </p>
<p>I went to high school just down the street from The Haverford School. There were drug dealers there then (1970) (and at all those nice public schools mentioned in the article as well) and it doesn’t surprise me that there are drug dealers there now. What surprises me is that they were caught and might actually end up in court for their actions.</p>
<p>Try this: ask your kids this question: “if you wanted marijuana, would you know how to get it?” For my kids, the answer was “yes” starting in sixth grade (when the answer was “I’d ask so-and-so’s older brother”) and the answer is still “yes” (when the answer is “oh for god’s sake, mom, of course I do and so do you”).</p>
<p>Well, maybe Mr Scott was an avid hunter then and had these weapons for hunting. We will have to find out if he has or has ever had a hunting permit. Maybe he was on the shooting team at school? Nope, I just checked: no shooting team.</p>
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Looks like my mom lucked out for awhile. :D</p>
<p>There was a lengthy article (unrelated to this story) made available on The Atlantic website yesterday called “Your Friendly Neighborhood Drug Dealer.” While I must confess my initial thought was this sounds like something Stephen Glass might have penned, I’m going to give the author and the magazine’s editors the benefit of the doubt. The feature covered many different issues that come up when discussing anything related to drug use and their illegal sale and distribution in this country. But the description of how the “friendly neighborhood drug dealer” got involved in the business was pretty telling, especially in light of this story of Lax Bros Gone Wrong on the Main Line:</p>
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<p>So apparently a lot of the kids who get lured into this business aren’t as smart as the “ghetto kingpins” à la Avon Barksdale, who know better than to ever use the drugs they sell. Nonetheless, Vicktor has made a very good income having his underlings sell to respectable clientele that included “NYU students, lawyers, artists, bankers, and a college professor—all ordering drugs to their apartments as casually as if it were Chinese food.”</p>
<p><a href=“Your Friendly Neighborhood Drug Dealer - The Atlantic”>Your Friendly Neighborhood Drug Dealer - The Atlantic;
<p>And yet even this guy never copped to targeting suburban high schools!</p>
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<p>I suspect they thought it was an easy way to make $ , $ they wouldn’t pay tax on. According to one article:</p>
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<p>If you are a 17 year old high school senior, that’s a lot of $. (S)he probably thought there was little risk of getting caught since (s)he was dealing to friends. (S)he may have known Brooks, who was allegedly in charge of the high school network. (S)he probably never dreamed (s)he’d get. </p>
<p>I think some high school kids are romanced by the idea of being bada$$es. </p>
<p>Until they get caught .</p>
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<p>This is my impression, as well.</p>
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<p>You don’t have to be a hunter, or a drug dealer or on the riflery team to own guns. Lots of people own guns because they want to own them, and it is perfectly legal to do so. Something like 60% of Americans own guns, and there are something like 400 million of them in private ownership.</p>
<p>People who don’t own guns and are not comfortable around guns often ascribe a nefarious purpose to gun ownership, and this is what will hurt the defendants who owned these guns, whether the reason for owning them had anything to do with dealing drugs or not. It is going to make them look bad. As Iglooo said, some will think they were ready for a “drug war,” whatever that even means.</p>
<p>Sax, the Pittsburgh case still hurts me terribly. DId not know those involved personally, but they were Young Life Participants of a friend of mine and her minister husband in Mt Lebanon, an upscale area, and they were just blindsided by all of this as they did know some of the men involved. For this heinous crime, so horrible that all of the heroin drug dealing was just dropped, ignored, three of those involved were given life sentences, but one has now been released upon appear and lesser charges pled. The other two men in their early 30s, are in there for life, with yet another given immunity for testimony. My friend still turns ashen about the case. The very idea of knowing such young people through high school, off to college and they get so involved is just a shattering blow. </p>
<p>This case, at least, does not involve lives so brutally murdered. </p>
<p>It will some time to see how this all comes out, but yes, that these young people, with all the other alternatives they had in life, with all lessons given, with so many helping them make their way in other venues, to choose a criminal venture and bring these things into the lives of other young people, peeing in their own life pot by doing s at their school is truly mind boggling. Is this true evil? </p>
<p>As you can probably tell, I’m not at all on the side of these people caught in this drug ring. But I do feel that it is important not to go into lynch mob mentality, and preserve the protocol and decorum that our justice system provides. I would feel exactly the same way about drug rings that are even more nefarious and entrenched in some known drug battlegrounds. </p>
<p>To add some levity to this very grave subject, I can tell you that when my friend from Denver was coming to a Super Bowl Party here in NY, and asked us what they can bring that would Bronco themed, my kids were ROFL. I don’t think the bison burgers on ice in a cooler that they brought were what was causing the laughter. </p>
<p>Bay, we own guns and my spouse used to hunt and target shoot. I get the gun thing. I just think its stupid to own THOSE guns. And it IS stupid if you are a criminal.</p>
<p>The drug war statement comes from Brooks stating that they were going to take over the drug supply business at all these schools. He made it sound like they were ready for battle.</p>
<p>cpt. it is tough when it hits home. </p>
<p>I don’t think anyone here was anywhere near lynch mob mentality at all. That’s why I like CC. Civilized discussion. </p>
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<p>I didn’t say it doesn’t apply tp certain police evidence. I said it doesn’t apply here meaning in our discussion because we aren’t talking about prosecuting them. We are forming an opinion as to how bad this is. </p>
<p>Aren’t you a bit overzealous in defending these “kids”? First you say there are stupid laws and breaking them isn’t really so bad then you give a gag order to people discussing this case applying a very broad interpretation of innocent until proven. </p>
<p>It does hurt and scare the absolute membranes from your gut off you in shards when it hits close to home. I think in many criminal cases, one look at the backgrounds of some of the perps, you don’t wonder one second why this person got into such a life, It’s a wonder when someone from such an environment does not. I worked and lived near Cabrini Green projects in Chicago. and pulled my kid from a nursery school, a very nice one from there, when some shots from there just came too close to where he was playing. And yet, that was the “good” part , the upscale part of that area, not in the projects area. So, yes, I 've seen a lot of this first hand, and the argument against releasing some of these people involved in some heavy duty crime is really that they are dangerous. </p>
<p>The whole thing with drugs that make their way down the pipelines to the colleges and even the highschools and lower, when one does not live in areas where the drug dealers rule, is that it does seem more innocuous. This sort of thing is shocking in that we see the underbelly, not only in the drug dealing (the drugs many people, rational ones feel should all be legalized to get rid of this part of the picture) but the realities of how bad it can get so that guns and plans and where one has to go to get the drugs.</p>
<p>The man featured in all of this, the Haverford grad, the 25 year old seems to be a bad egg all around. There is such thing as evil. How this case unfolds, we’ll see. I just am thankful that no bodies, as of yet, have been found, as it can go there, which that Pittsburgh case fully showed.</p>
<p>Igloo,</p>
<p>Alright with your clarification, but honestly, what you meant did not come across in the statement you made.</p>
<p>And no, I don’t think I am overzealous. I don’t think college kids smoking pot is a terrible thing, and obviously they have to get it from somewhere, so I guess I’m not too upset by someone selling it to them either. I did object right up front to selling drugs to high school kids on school property, that is severe, but I didn’t see anything on the internet or on this thread that supported the claim that the defendants had sold cocaine and ecstasy to high school kids on school property, and I still haven’t seen any direct evidence or direct allegation of that, just a report of a government affidavit that implies as much, and that is what got me going. I think it is slanderous to make serious criminal claims about people without something more, but I realize that a lot of people don’t agree with me, and that is fine but too bad for all of us. </p>
<p>Guns and hunting are very popular in Pennsylvania, generally, but, trust me, not so much in Haverford. Sure, there are gun nuts on the Main Line (which includes Haverford), but they are very much the exception, not the rule. I suspect it’s way less common than having a decent supply of weed handy. If it were up to the citizens of Philadelphia’s wealthy suburbs, marijuana would be legal and guns not.</p>
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<p>I didn’t expect that you would understand, but it was worth an attempt</p>
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<p>Sadly, that is about what I expected. i hoped for something better of course. Ever the optimist!</p>
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<p>True. But in many states you have to have a license and acquire them legally. We’ll see if that was the case here.</p>
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<p>Don’t forget the “ratting on”. LOL.</p>
<p>Ok, fluffy, what exactly does “ratting on” mean, other than betray, snitch, squeal, sell out <a href=“RATTING+ON Synonyms & Antonyms | Thesaurus.com”>http://thesaurus.com/browse/ratting+on</a></p>
<p>And what is this thing it supposedly means about me, by the fact that I used the words in that way?</p>
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<p>If it makes a difference, the primary defendant was from Paoli, PA.</p>