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So why are the San Diego U drug busts so newsworthy?

We were sitting here enjoying our new patio furniture and watching the evening news when our son came by. He works at a local university, and he came in just as we saw coverage of the big drug/weapons bust in which 75 students were arrested at San Diego University. Now admittedly, the arrest of 75 students, mostly frat members according to the report I just saw online, and the monetary value of the drugs and weapons found ($100,000), were no small thing. The bust came about after a year-long investigation into the cocaine-related death of a student there.

But, hey, there must be millions of dollars worth of drugs and weapons floating around colleges and universities nationwide, aren't there? I mean, really, cocaine, marijuana, even heroine and meth, are widely spread all over America. So why such a big deal about the bust at SDSU?

That was the question my somewhat cynical research scientist son asked me and his mother as we were watching the newscast when he came in.

(I lied, by the way: We have no patio or patio furniture, just some worn recliners and a broken down old sofa. But a nice patio with nice patio furniture would be so much more fun on this beautiful spring day.)

We had no answer for him. As rampant as drugs and weapons are on almost all college and university campuses in America, what's the big surprise? Not that the bust -- and many more like it, I'm sure -- shouldn't be made. Absolutely it was the right thing to do. But what made this bust newsworthy enough to make all the networks and the cable news channels?

I really don't know. Was last year's drug death victim someone wealthy or especially sympathetic to the public? I don't know. Were those busted obnoxious, spoiled "little rich kids"? I don't know. The article indicated law enforcement people were angered at how open and "blatant" the drug dealers who got busted were -- and the article mentioned one was a criminal justice major.

As my son pointed out, ultimately there is so much like this happening nationwide that it really isn't a big deal and probably not newsworthy. At the same time, it can't hurt just to let parents and students out there hear the message that ideally if you do drugs or sell drugs or deal in weapons, you will pay the penalty. That's ideally, of course. And maybe "ideally" is something we have to shoot for.
[tags]university drug bust, newsworthy drug busts, just a guy who reads the papers[/tags]