About a decade before the “War on Drugs” really began sweeping the nation, Congress had already written into law a key piece of legislation which supported those efforts. Certain drug crimes – namely those associated with the crack cocaine epidemic – when committed near schools, were met with increased penalties at a federal level. Within a decade, a number of states adopted the same kinds of regulation.

Today, every state government maintains some law for harsher penalties against drug crimes near schools, and 31 of them have vastly extended their zones beyond schools. [...]