Note to Would-Be Drug Dealers: Don't Advertise Specials Via Text Message

Ah, dumb crime - we can never get enough of it. When Bostonist did a clinical program in law school where we worked as a public defender for juveniles, we decided that if we could teach one thing to high school students, it would be a quick course on constitutional rights, so they wouldn't always consent to police searches they could have refused. Apparently, though, that wouldn't be enough - we'd also need to teach kids not to be so goddamned dumb. We reach this conlcusion based on news out of Shrewsbury that some teenagers there and in Farmington, CT, were arrested for using text-messages with photos to sell weed. The brilliant scheme broke down when - surprise! - someone's mom saw the illicit sales offers on his cell phone and alerted the cops (someone buy that woman a t-shirt). This allowed police to get warrants and conduct surveillance that eventually nabbed the dealers.

Maybe it's unsporting of us to heap ridicule on these kids, who are already in a mess o' trouble, but, damn! Can you guys think a little more next time? Possession of marijuana is a crime, and most prosecutors like nothing more than when offenders create a permanent, photographic record of their crimes and send it out under their own names. Christ! This isn't complicated legal theory, here. Bostonist would hope that teenagers tune into the news enough to know that feds might be monitoring their cell phone and e-mail conversations at any time, but if that's too much to ask, can't they at least watch Law & Order (especially episode 272, where the cops trace a cell phone call to a drug dealer)?