Case Studies
2. The Relativity of Law and Crime
Tony, Chris, and Sam are all juniors in high school and have been good friends since their freshman year. They hang out together after school nearly every day and party together on the weekends. The boys often smoke marijuana together and with other friends at parties, too. The three are hanging out after school on a Friday afternoon, smoking marijuana, and talking about the party they will be attending the next evening. Chris tells his friends that he has a surprise that he is going to take to the party and pulls a bag of cocaine out of his backpack. Tony and Sam look at Chris in complete disbelief. They have never seen a drug like cocaine and don’t even know where to get some. After Chris leaves, Tony and Sam discuss what happened and agree that they do not want to go to the party with Chris if he is going to have cocaine. Smoking marijuana is cool to them, but cocaine is just too hard of a drug. They become very concerned about Chris and are now afraid he may have a drug problem.