There is a bitter irony in Ralphs firing two of their longtime, seemingly excellent employees for the questionable sale of beer. They are accused of selling to Pepperdine students carrying ID that is next to impossible to disprove as false. The irony is that nobody in the gangster world gets fired for selling drugs to any kids, college students, or not. Our most respectable, model parents, Mr. and Mrs. Smith of America, prefer that for the purchase of drugs, their children must go to the streets and buy impure products from criminal traffickers.
By their distaste for these particular drugs, all the Mr. and Mrs. Smiths virtually have caused: 1) The formation of this vast underworld of drug prohibition; 2) the criminalization of their children and 3) because of the stigma of criminalizing their children, the Smiths have put up huge barriers to the progress of rehabilitation.
Does anybody remember the perfect model for this? Alcohol Prohibition? Ending this massive criminal underground industry is all in the hands of our respectable neighbors, Mr. And Mrs. Smith.
Peter Fleming