Drug-free school zone is a term used in the United States to denote an area within a certain distance, most commonly 1,000 feet, of the nearest school, park, or other public area. Signs to this effect are generally posted along all public streets at the entrances to such an area.

The term is somewhat misleading, in that the sale or even possession of recreational drugs is uniformly illegal throughout the United States; what does make the signs arguably relevant, however, is that the laws in most American states now call for increased criminal penalties for any drug sales (and, in some of these states, possession of drugs in sufficient quantity as to suggest an obvious intent to sell on the part of the person possessing said drugs) that occur within the designated zone. Other prohibited activities include gang involvement and carrying weapons. The first laws of this kind were passed in the late 1980s.

However,within these so called drug-free school zones there is no more protection provided than other areas of the United States. The only difference is tougher penalties for anyone caught with the possesion of narcotics and even tougher ones for attempted sale. These laws are known to often cause harsh punishment such as extremely extended jail times (such as getting two years in jail for sale of a joint of Marijuana), but most people caught within these zones either did not know they were in them,or were not selling near schools nor to children.

There has been no substancial drop in drug use after the implementation of these laws, what there has been is a sharp rise of people put in prison because of drug laws, amount of time put in prison as well.

Drug-free school zone