The AP reports on a new low in child care -- Miami police report that a kindergartener brought a bag of marijuana to school and sprinkled some over another student's lasagna at lunchtime:

A 5-year-old boy took a bag of marijuana to school and was sprinkling it over a friend's lasagna like oregano when a monitor intervened, police said. The lasagna was confiscated before the other boy had a chance to eat it Monday in the cafeteria at Gratigny Elementary School. ...

Police and child welfare authorities were investigating the boy's family. "The focus is on the child's environment and what issues could have led to a child having a bag of marijuana in school,'' Villafana said. Police also were looking into whether an older friend may have asked the boy to hold the bag.

Also on Monday, authorities in Indianapolis said a 4-year-old boy took crack cocaine that police said was worth up to $10,000 to his preschool class and showed it to classmates, saying it was flour.

Sometimes my libertarian impulses lead me to believe that we are wasting time, money, and resources on a drug war that we can't win and perhaps shouldn't be fighting. Stories like these make me wonder if the prohibition isn't strong enough, although you can make the same arguments over handguns as well.

What's beyond dispute is that the parents of these children need to be thoroughly investigated and the children protected from the dangerous environments that produced these incidents. In the latter case, the parents are already wanted for drug charges and other issues; Indianapolis authorities need to explain why the child was still with these parents.

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