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Drug war mistargets students
Amos Irwin | The Boston Globe | 9/3/2005

AS COLLEGE students around the country return to campus this fall, thousands of their peers won't be joining them because of a federal law that strips financial aid from students with drug convictions.

The policy is up for reconsideration this month as Senator Edward M. Kennedy and other members of the US Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee restructure the Higher Education Act for the first time in seven years.

While the 1965 law was intended to make higher education more accessible and affordable to Americans, the drug provision -- added during a 1998 reauthorization -- is an unjustifiable roadblock in the path to college. Over the past seven years, more than 175,000 students have lost their financial aid because of it.

The law not only victimizes students trying to turn their lives around with a college education, it also makes our streets less safe and hurts our economy.

People coming out of prison are much less likely to return to illegal activities, including drug use, if they enter higher education. According to the Correctional Education Association, only 10 percent of prisoners who receive at least two years of higher education are arrested again, compared with a general rearrest rate of about 60 percent. Blocking education to ex-offenders only condemns them to lives without the financial opportunities made possible by college degrees and makes them more likely to repeat bad choices made in the past.

Public policies should encourage people who have been in trouble with drugs to move beyond their past mistakes, but the drug provision endangers their chances of becoming productive citizens. Graduating more students from college means greater economic productivity and increased tax revenue, while locking up more inmates means taxpayers must pay the bill for skyrocketing criminal justice costs. Blocking education for determined students is fiscally irresponsible.

One proposal, to scale back the law, would help some students get back into school but would still leave tens of thousands behind. The minor change would stop the provision from affecting people with convictions from the past, but students convicted while in school would continue to be stripped of their aid, leaving the fundamental problems with the law unaddressed.

Since there are already minimum grade requirements for receiving financial aid, the partially reformed drug provision would only affect students who are doing well in classes. Good students would continue to be removed from school for minor drug offenses, many of them never returning to finish their degrees. The Department of Education reports that among students who leave four-year colleges before the beginning of their second year, 36 percent don't return within five years. More than half of those leaving two-year institutions don't reenroll within five years.

Partially reforming this fundamentally flawed law is like patching a gaping wound with a Band-Aid. The Senate committee should fully repeal the drug provision and reinstate aid to all qualified individuals who want to get their lives back on track by going to college.

It could be another seven years before Congress restructures the Higher Education Act again. As the ranking Democrat on the committee, Kennedy should take a leadership role in helping students stay in school. If he doesn't act now, another 175,000 students could have the doors to education slammed shut in their faces.

Amos Irwin is president of Amherst College's chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy.

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PotShot

Or congress could a few steps further and repeal prohibition entirely.

Ok, I don't wanna sound too "crazy" but...
(Puts on Tinfoil Hat)

I think that the financial aid restriction, as well as all the whiz quizing(urinalysis) that goes on, is a direct attempt at subduing the "Cannabis Culture". What other crime can destroy any chance of getting money from the government for school?

The government telling us that cannabis users are "lazy do-nothing idiots" unfortunatly becomes true when they block a major path of getting "ahead" in life, it makes me sick.

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Niteshift

I think that the financial aid restriction, as well as all the whiz quizing(urinalysis) that goes on, is a direct attempt at subduing the "Cannabis Culture". What other crime can destroy any chance of getting money from the government for school?

Um, is this a trick question? How about ANY other drug? What leads you to think that it's all about pot?

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PotShot

Yup, any other drug can get your school money taken from you. It's all about pot because pot is the infrastructure that the rest of the illicit drug market(drug culture) is built around.

And the drug testing market is certainly all about pot. Nothing is terrorizing us more, just take a look at the Urine Testing board. Pre-employment whiz-quizing makes it very difficult to enjoy cannabis and find a good job at the same time.(The Man chuckles...)

Higher Logic

It isn't entirely about marijuana, but I don't know anyone in college that's lost financial aid because of cocaine. And they surely aren't running around injecting heroin either. Marijuana is the primary target mainly because of how many people use it, especially in college, not to mention it's easier to catch people with it than the second most popular drug on campus (well, not including alcohol or tobacco), and that would be cocaine. Prescription pills are also big, but seriously, we're comparing an herb that's not easy to hide with a powder and a pill, something that is small, discreet, and odorless.

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Niteshift

I know of ones who've lost it for cocaine and ecstacy, but not heroin.

I'm not disputing that pot is probably the most prevelant, but since pot is the most often used drug, that shouldn't surprised anyone.

And I'll even conceed that with pot most frequently being a misdemeanor, it doesn't seem to balanced to have it carry the same penalty in this case as a felony.

But I do have trouble with the concept that this is aimed at the "cannabis culture". I don't see where a specific drug was in mind, which is why they made is ANY drug offense.

Buzzby

The illicit drug market existed long before marijuana became part of popular culture. Most marijuana users do not use any other illicit drugs. Most marijuana dealers don't sell hard drugs.


All pre-emp and probation drug tests are 5-panel or 10-panel (tests for 5 or 10 different drugs). Of course the Urine Testing forum on a marijuana site is about marijuana, but that doesn't indicate that drug testing is all about marijuana.

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green_bastard

That is absolute bullshit. I have nothing else to say about it. It's rediculous and makes me sick. The Americans have gone too far. I say we start thinking about economic sanctions. We have to be able to protect ourselves for when they invade after WE legalize and they'll have labelled US as terrorist supporters on the media stations they control. After all, they've left the poor with no option besides the military.

PotShot

Most cannabis "dealers" might not sell other drugs, there is a high chance that they could get them, if there was sufficient demand. That is why I say that cannabis is the infrastructure that supports the illicit drug market at the level it is today. If cannabis was suddenly legalized there would be no curious drug users who deal with the black market just to get their weed. There would be a huge drop in overall black market activity, which would hurt ALL illicit drug markets, including harder more dangerous drugs.

And why I prompt to look at the drug testing board is trying to draw attention to the terrorizing aspect of that dastardly industry. Many times people have to choose abstaining from the herb for a month or two just so they can get a job sans "would you like fries with that?" I am also aware that the drug tests check for other drugs, but what other drug can stay detectable in your urine for longer than a month?

Splash damage is still damage, can you understand that? They might not have come out and said "Hey, this is to keep all you radical stoners in the gutter", but that seems to be the result. So I connect a to b and asume that was their motive, to damage cannabis users. 175,000 of them.

BC.Buddy

Well, there ya go then, huh?

That is something I didn't consider right away. Interesting.

Yeah, wild you would find someone saying something like that at marijuana.com, eh?

Yeah, I don't think it's sustaining the market. The illicit drug market will exist long after a scenario where marijuana disappears. One could say the illicit drug market/culture is built around alcohol with just as much accuracy. In fact, I do consider alcohol as a much worse 'gate' than marijuana for harder drugs.

But marijuana seems to be the centre of drug enforcement for some reason.

That's quite an emotionally filled conspiracy theory... but I'm wit ya! It's a scary thought, huh?

While the 1965 law was intended to make higher education more accessible and affordable to Americans, the drug provision -- added during a 1998 reauthorization -- is an unjustifiable roadblock in the path to college. Over the past seven years, more than 175,000 students have lost their financial aid because of it.

It didn't say that they were all marijuana consumers. I bet it would be a severe majority though.

Either way, I call foul.

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