During the last week of November, Cesar Chavez High School had dozens of kids taken to the hospital by ambulance due to passing out from eating “pot-brownies”, or brownies made with marijuana in them. To add to the situation, on Monday November 28th, four to five kids passed out within an hour of each other. These incidents are not as isolated as people may think; Cesar Chavez High School has a circulation of drugs reaching student to student. These drugs range from pills, alcohol, and the most popular: marijuana.

Marijuana is the most popular drug among Chavez students for reasons unknown, but the drug is common on campus in the form of brownies. The drugs are easily brought into the school because all you have to do is wrap it and put it in your backpack. Even though Chavez has classroom searches by officers with dogs, they are only called when the teacher smells or has suspicions of someone having drugs on them.

I interviewed two students (who wish to remain anonymous) about the drug abuse on the Chavez campus. For this article, Student A is Alice and student B is Ben. Both students are pot-brownie dealers on campus and both were interviewed with questions that focused on how they went about selling on campus.

My first interview was with student A, Alice. Alice is a senior at Cesar Chavez High School.  Alice sells 10 pot-brownies a day and usually sells out by lunch which starts at 10:27am. 10 brownies equals 10 students a day that are high at school or afterschool. However, with the recent incidents, 4-6 out of 10 students who buy them were high/passed out during school. She sells 10 brownies 3 or 4 days out of the week depending on “how she feels.” That means 30-40 students per week are getting high off pot-brownies that are introduced to them at school; a place that is supposed to be safe and nurturing to teens where they can focus on their education. I asked Alice if she is scared to get caught and what drives her to bring these drugs to school. She replied with the following statement: “I’m kinda scared, that’s why I don’t try to bring stuff to school, but I’m making money.”

Alice has been caught before, but she did not have pot-brownies; she had marijuana in a baggy which were taken away by officers. The consequence of having this baggy of marijuana on her at school resulted in 30 hours of community service, court dates, and a fine of more than $300. Alice also gave me information about what percentage of students bring any type/form of marijuana on the school campus. She told me that around 65% of students had marijuana on them in the beginning of the school year. The good news is that now, about 45% of students bring marijuana on campus, but with a crackdown we can bring the percentage even lower or have no drugs on campus.

After my interview with student A, I found another source who I could get information from. This student is student B, Ben. Ben is a junior at Chavez High School and is another pot-brownie seller. Ben pretty much gave me the same answers as Alice, however, he never has gotten caught with any pot-brownies or other type of drugs. Furthermore, he sells 6- 10 brownies whenever he brings them to school. I asked what motivates him to do these things and if he is scared at all of getting caught.  His response:  “Yeah I get scared, but you gotta keep it cool so they know you don’t do it. I do it for the hustle.” As a result of interviewing student A and B, I figured out what connects all the dealers at school…the almighty dollar.

Money drives these dealers to sell their drugs to students on school property. Even though you are making quick cash from selling to students, is it really worth it? Why would you risk your education and life to sell drugs when you can get a career and become successful in life? You aren’t ruining your own life, you are ruining the lives of the students you sell marijuana to because it is a gateway drug for them. You put the lives of other students at risk just to make a quick buck. Would you rather sit in a jail cell OR get an education that is offered to you for free? Also, what if someone knows you are making this money and one day decides to rob you at gunpoint on campus for not only your money, but the edibles and marijuana you have?

Whether you are selling on campus or outside of campus, the risks don’t change, the lives of people don’t change. However, your decisions can change, even if you are a buyer or seller. We as a school, can change the infestation of drugs on campus all together for the safety of each other. There should be stricter rules on people who are caught with these substances that a selling them and using them. If the rules aren’t enforced, who knows what students can bring onto campus? What if Administration is too late?

As of the release of this article, the two dealers that I had interviewed have stopped dealing on campus completely due to concerns of getting true. However, they pot infestation continues as multiple students have been taken off campus due to overdose on edible marijuana brownies.