Drug-free zones, once the exclusive domain of schools and playgrounds, have become an expanding no-man’s land in the national drug war. In some states, they now encompass public housing projects, shopping malls and churches.

This gradual conquering of territory since 1970 has not been without a fight. Many groups and legislators link such zones to harsher, discriminatory sentencing for urban, low-income drug offenders.

Although each state’s laws for the zones vary, drug-free zones in the District are areas designated by the Chief of Police because of disproportionately high rates of drug-related crime, according to the Metropolitan Police Department’s (MPD) Web site.

Any group of two or more people within the zone for the purchase, sale or use of illegal drugs and failing to leave following an officer’s order, faces arrest, fines and imprisonment.

Some among the homeless think that the creation of drug-free zones around shelters would significantly lower the amount of drug dealing in their vicinity because dealers would fear stricter punishments.

“Shelters, like schools, should be a drug-free zone,” said Ray Mitchell, a homeless man who says he has dealt drugs in the past but never used them. Mitchell stays at Franklin School shelter, the largest men’s shelter in downtown D.C.

Dealers would avoid the area if they knew that they were risking higher penalties to be nearby, he said.

“It would certainly help,” agreed George Jones, the site coordinator for Franklin shelter. “This problem does not have one solution.” Many Street Sense vendors also agreed, saying that a drug-free zone designation would deter dealers.

The majority of people who stay in shelters would probably benefit from drug-free zones, said Ann Marie Staudenmaier, a staff attorney for the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless. “[Creating such zones is] not criminalizing homelessness. It’s criminalizing drug dealing,” she said.

Shawn Mason, management analyst for the city’s police department, said drug-free zones are normally created through community action, operating as a partnership between citizens and police.

“We are just trying to help a community get rid of these problems,” said Mason, who didn’t know any specific instances of a shelter becoming a drug-free zone. Regardless of the designation, city shelters automatically receive increased police presence, he said.

The drug-free zones originated as a way to reduce drug dealing at vacant schoolyards after hours, Mason said. Many times, such zones are designated following periods of increased drug-related arrests in certain areas.

Mason said that designating an area as a drug-free zone can take anywhere from 48 hours to 10 days, and the police make efforts to notify all residents and clearly delineate the area.

Those engaging in a drug-related activity while in the zone face a fine up to $300, 180 days imprisonment or both, according to the MPD’s Web site.

The five drug-free zones designated this year were concentrated in the Third and Fourth Police Districts.

City parks, such as the Franklin Square Park across from Franklin shelter, are monitored by the U.S. Park Police independent of municipal forces. The Park Police also try to work closely with the local communities, said Sgt. Robert Lachance, a spokesman for the force.

Groups like the Drug Policy Alliance, however, feel that drug-free zones focus too extensively on the supply side of drug use in the city and charge inner-city offenders more harshly than their suburban counterparts.

Instead of a solution that sends more people to prison, the city should pursue public health initiatives that help people with their addictions and reduce the city’s drug use, said Naomi Long, the D.C. metro area director of the Drug Policy Alliance.

“The best way to do that is to invest in drug treatment programs that work,” as well as stable housing and other wraparound services, she said.

Despite the current policies of incarceration and crackdowns on the supply, drugs are still readily available, Long said, signaling a need to step back and reevaluate.

For Mason, though, the drug-free zones do work as a deterrent.

“But unfortunately,” he said, “the police can’t declare every block a drug-free zone. There is a possibility people will go elsewhere for their illegal activities.”

April 30, 2008