When one middle school student is arrested for selling marijuana and two others are arrested for buying it, as they were two weeks ago at North Carroll Middle School, it's no secret that Carroll County has a youth drug problem that needs attention.
While it may be easy to recognize this problem, finding the appropriate strategy to combat drug use may test the strength of this community.
For more than three decades America has been fighting a losing war on drugs. Each year more people are arrested, convicted and imprisoned, yet drug use -- particularly among the nation's youth -- continues to increase unabated.
It is therefore understandable that a sense of panic has overtaken Carroll's parents and government officials. But now more than ever, adults have to think clearly about the problem and possible solutions.
Unfortunately, fear about teen drug use has reached hysteria and threatens to overwhelm sensible thinking.
Drugs are present in the schools, but that does not mean Carroll's schools have been transformed into ghetto drug markets. Some parents attending a forum about drug use at North Carroll High earlier this month spoke about the "dangers" of attending a county school the way they might talk about the danger of living in Sarajevo.
The schools are no more dangerous than they used to be. The problem is that drugs are more readily available in school than in the past.
Obviously, ridding the schools of drugs must be a top priority.
Two solutions have been offered: sending drug-sniffing dogs into the schools and suspending, or in some cases expelling, kids caught with drugs.
Since his election, county State's Attorney Jerry F. Barnes has been promoting his plan to send drug-sniffing dogs into the schools.
Putting aside the constitutional questions of conducting warrantless searches, this strategy will only create a false sense of accomplishment. Random searches may discourage a few kids from bringing drugs to school, but they won't deter everyone.
Unless the county's drug force is willing to have dogs search the schools on a daily basis, most kids who bring drugs to school will continue to bring them. Instead of putting them in their lockers, they will hide them near the school. Once the search has been conducted, they will move them out of their hiding places and into their lockers.
Creating a climate of fear in the schools will not discourage kids from using drugs. Instead of buying and selling drugs at the schools, the kids will do it at shopping malls, on recreation fields or at rock concerts.
I know because I am a member of the baby boom generation that embraced the drug culture in the mid-'60s. I attended a school that used draconian measures to enforce its anti-drug policy. Anyone caught with drugs -- on or off campus -- was expelled. No appeals.
But the zero-tolerance policy didn't work. Every weekend, there were well-attended pot parties. Bored with marijuana, some of ,, my classmates experimented with potent hallucinogens such as LSD, peyote and mushrooms. Yet the school principal and counselors often congratulated themselves on having a drug-free school.
Harsh punishment deterred only a few. My school chums weren't concerned about the dangers of using drugs. They just worried about being caught with drugs. As a result, drug use continued unimpeded.
Carroll seems headed down the same road of delusion. School administrators have announced that the number of requests for drug-related suspensions are almost twice as great as they were this time last year.
The school system's policy of allowing students with drug or alcohol problems to receive counseling and treatments rather than punishment as long as they request help should be expanded.
When kids are caught with drugs, they should be removed to a special program where teachers and counselors can help them overcome their drug use while the students continue their education.
To curtail teen drug use effectively, Carroll's parents have to monitor their children's behavior carefully.
Only they can prevent their children from going to parties where drugs are present.
Only they can restrict the use of the family car.
Only they can control the amount of money their children have to spend. Parents are more effective in curbing drug use than the schools will ever be.
Early anti-drug education efforts are effective. Most elementary kids have been thoroughly indoctrinated about the dangers of using drugs. It's when these children become middle and high school students that the message is forgotten.
As long as drugs are available in the community, teens will experiment with them. Turning schools into prisons will only marginally reduce drug usage and result in creating an oppressive environment.
People attending North Carroll's drug forum got a glimpse of this when school administrators huddled before the meeting to decide how to handle a man who was passing out leaflets outside the auditorium that had "not been pre-approved" by administrators.
When a reporter asked the man for one of the pamphlets, he gave him a copy: It was the U.S. Bill of Rights.
Brian Sullam is The Baltimore Sun's editorial writer in Carroll County.