The laws enhance penalties for drug offenses that occur in certain restricted areas - generally 1,000-foot zones around locations such as schools, public housing complexes, parks and playgrounds. Many drug-free zone laws include mandatory minimum sentencing terms and enhancements so that judges lose the discretion to determine appropriate penalties on a case-by-case basis.

The laws are often applied to transactions that take place with no children present, occurring in private residences that happen to be less than 1,000 feet - about the length of three football fields - from a school's property line. ...

The zones completely cover many densely populated urban neighborhoods, where people of color are more likely to live. For example, in New Jersey, drug-free zone laws cover three quarters of Newark, in contrast to six percent of rural Mansfield Township. What is more, the disparity seems to be exacerbated by drug enforcement patterns. In Massachusetts, blacks and Hispanics make up 20 percent of the population, but 80 percent of drug-free zone cases. In New Jersey and Connecticut, blacks in suburban and rural areas are far more likely than their white counterparts to be arrested and convicted of drug-free zone offenses.

Drug free zones are based on "tough on crime" rhetoric, not on rational policy. The zones may have helped some politicians seeking knee-jerk, anti-crime votes, but they haven't helped society. It's time that we Just Say No to drug free zones.