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20 April 2006 16 Year young woman old tagged A 16 year old girl has been tagged for 10 months by Airdrie Sheriff Court : Schoolgirl tagged The story is about a 16 year old girl who has been given a tagging order and a home curfew (house arrest) nightly. She was found with 1 oz of blow at school and evidence - from other pupils and a check list of customers in her possession - that she had been dealing. First point: cannabis is pretty harmless and fun. Some religions use it as a sacrement. There is some evidence that it is carcenogenic; but then so is burnt toast. Most of the studies that finds that it is carcenogenic or conducive to mental illness have a horribly partisan feel to them. It is criminal to punish people for smoking a harmless intoxicant. Ok. Lets think purely in terms of the legal system, I.e adopt the kind of legal positivism that I imagine most people think appropriate for schoolgirls. I.e they should obey the rules and not question them. Even then this is a minor misdemeanour. 10 months locked into the house every night and what can only be called vandalising the person which is what tagging people is about is savage. The tagging will I imagine contribute to a poor self-image, negative feelings about the self, depression, anger, loss of self-discipline and respect. The house arrest will effectively prevent this young woman from having a social life for 10 months. It is extraordinarily savage - on someone who is only just not a child. A young woman. The c*** of a Sheriff then had the sheer nerve to tell the young woman that she had to "grow up" having just given her a sentance that will make this virtually impossible. Do these people not see how savage they are? |