A "get tough" policy of making no exceptions in regards to a particular (usually criminal or undesirable) matter, born as a response to a general sense of uneaven application of rules and punishments.
To react to a proscribed activity or substance with absolute prejudice... Without regard to mitigating circumstances or conditions.
I don't care if you've got glaucoma, we have a zero tolerance policy to drugs, including marijuana.
We will react to sexism and racism with zero tolerance.
A policy that was put into use by United States schools and other establishments soon after the Columbine tragedy.
In practice, zero tolerance policies allow for no weapons or dangerous objects in school.
However, the noun "weapon" can mean "an object that can be used to cause harm"; the phrase "dangerous objects" is a plural of the same meaning; therefore, almost any object can be considered a weapon.
Because of this, overzealous officials often unleash horrificaly exaggerated sentences for the silliest of things.
A 7-year-old boy was suspended for pretending to shoot his classmates.
A school where blacks, Hispanics, Gays, Republicans, and several other racial, social, and political groups of people are not tolerated. Some schools might allow or disallow different people, but the groups given above are the most common to not be allowed.
White guy: Why don't you go to indian lane academy?
Besides being used to describe draconian and uniform (goodbye punishment that fits the crime) policys of law enforcement and schools, zero tolerance can also refer to the war on drugs in another way.
It refers to that no drugs (though not as much towards alcohol since the alcohol companies help fund anti-drug organizations bullshit) are acceptable to be taken recreationaly. Pure abstinence over drugs. Too bad for them humansdon't work that way. There have been drug users for as long as humans have known of their existence.
It doesn't know how many this is your brain on drugs commercials you air, how many people you arrest and how many civil rights you violate, people will always use and abuse drugs. Whatever the hell drug abuse means....
And people looking to sell them will always exist no matter how draconian the laws are.