Assorted goodies going stealth through our local airlines

I was sitting in the Pen Air terminal in Anchorage on my last trip home.  I noticed that some people were reading, some fooling around on phones & other techie gadgets, some snoozing.  I chose to occasionally stare out the window at all of the planes coming and going.  Then at the wall, or the floor.  What makes this staring special for me is that there is non-stop thinking going on.  I'll pull up a memory from upstairs, think about it for a while & this sets off a chain reaction of memories popping up.  At each memory popping up, I'll sift through all of the fine details.  Then I'll start working it through different what-if scenarios.  Sometimes, I find answers & solutions to my old questions & problems years later.   

With a quick glance around the room now & then, I notice a carry-on here & there.  My carry-on always contains my beloved laptop computer.  Camera.  (Picture above was taken after whipping my camera out on a flight)  Not much else in my carry-on.  The thought of checking my laptop in at the counter in other baggage is horrifying.  The possibility of it getting treated like a pinball, or beanbag no doubt is there.  So I'll pass on checking it.

I have my reasons for having a carry-on.  I wonder what all of those other carry-ons contain.  Has to be precious, otherwise it would just be checked it in, right?  Possibly just traveling light, though.  So you just walk up to the counter and check in, then declare that you have a carry-on.  Bam-bam.  Then you jump on the airplane.  Bam.

When you fly on a bigger plane to a far away destination, you'll be going through security.  Take your jacket and shoes off.  Belt, wristwatch- you name it.  They get scanned, as well as your carry-on.  Why is there no security screening for these smaller flights?  Smaller planes?  Less people?  Cost too much?  Convenience?  This simple walk up & jump on a plane pretty much allows anything to travel from point A to point B.  I'll bet that this is the preferred transport method for getting weed, pills, and whatever else is around here into the area.  Wouldn't a simple security screening prevent most of this drug smuggling from happening?  Does checked baggage get a screening of some sort?  I guess screening is just to prevent weapons on to the plane?  Don't get me wrong, now- I enjoy the least amount of roadblocks on the path home.  Does anyone know why security screening is only used on the bigger flights, and not the little ones?