By Mark David Blum

Over and over, as I pass by the Indian Village at the fairgrounds and over and over, my eyes are drawn to one of several blue signs with white letters: “Drug and Alcohol Free Zone.”

It reminds me of what I think and how I feel every time I go to speak at a local High School. “Drug and Alcohol Free Zones” are plastered everywhere and I take a personal glee on asking just one question.

“How?”

America has spent trillions of dollars, incarcerated millions of people, destroyed the lives of millions more, and has a secret army of thousands; all in the name of making the United States a ‘Drug Free’ nation. Today, drugs are cheaper, more plentiful, better quality, and the market is still controlled by organized crime.

So the question remains. How do certain school districts and the Indian Village at the fairgrounds manage to accomplish what nobody else in the world has been able to do. Heck, we cannot even keep drugs (or cellphones) out of our prisons (even supermax prisons), how do we make a free society ‘Drug Free’.

A part of me hopes that one day, the Five Nations that comprise the Indian Village and those random school districts and communities would share their knowledge with the rest of us. We as a people are desperate to know “how” to make a place Drug and Alcohol free.

So far, nobody else has figured it out.

I beg of the Nations’ Chiefs: Please say “how”.

Inquiring minds want to know.