Pubdate: Mon, 14 Nov 2005
Source: Harvard Crimson (MA Edu)
Copyright: 2005, The Harvard Crimson, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.thecrimson.harvard.edu/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/794
Author: Dan R. Rasmussen

HARVARD RARELY PUNISHES STUDENT DRUG USE

Several times a week, Joe and his blockmates stuff towels under their 
door, open the windows, turn on a fan, and get stoned.

Occasionally, Joe says, he and his friends will head down to the bank 
of the Charles River and light up joints right out in the open. Joe, 
a Harvard senior who didn't want his last name used for fear that 
potential employers would look unfavorably upon his marijuana use, 
says he never worries that his recreational drug use will land him in 
legal trouble.

"I don't know anyone who smokes regularly who gives even a fleeting 
thought to the possibility of getting caught," Joe said. "If you had 
nugget of weed in Dallas, you'd get your ass arrested, but here it 
seems like they have bigger fish to fry."

Joe's analysis may not be far off the mark. While an adult selling 
even an ounce of marijuana or growing one marijuana plant within 
three blocks of a university is subject to a one-year mandatory 
minimum sentence under federal law, students at Harvard are more 
likely to face a "formal warning" or, at worst, probation for their 
marijuana use.

Last year, only one student was arrested by the Harvard University 
Police Department (HUPD) for drug law violations, and only two 
students went before the Administrative Board, the College's 
disciplinary body, for drug-related behavior.

Marijuana use may violate federal law, but at Harvard, it's less 
likely to get you in trouble than breaking a window.

Jay Ellison, the assistant dean of Harvard College and secretary of 
the Ad Board, says the Ad Board will not punish a student for simply 
smoking marijuana. In the two cases last year in which the board did 
take action, Ellison said, drugs were only part of the offense and 
were not the complete reason for punishment.

"We did not take action simply because drugs or alcohol were 
involved, but because of some inappropriate behavior," he said.

Ellison elaborated that while students would not face the Ad Board 
for smoking pot or drinking underage, they would face the Board for 
violations such as smashing a window, breaking a door, or starting a 
fight. In fact, he says, the only reason alcohol and drugs are 
mentioned in the Ad Board's reports is because of a government law.

And HUPD goes to great lengths to ensure that students caught smoking 
marijuana will face repercussions within the College and not in state 
or federal courts.

"If we catch a student smoking a joint, clearly that gives us the 
right to lock them up. But the question is, what is the most 
appropriate thing to do?" said HUPD spokesman Steven G. Catalano. 
"It's most punitive internally, and our officers know that... We want 
to make sure there's still some accountability there. That's important."

Catalano says that most drug law violations in the area come from 
individuals not affiliated with the College who come on campus to 
find a place to light up. Enforcement, in sum, is more likely to 
target "pit kids" and the homeless than Harvard students.

This discrepancy is not unique to Cambridge, and has a uniquely 
racial dimension. Across the country, some policy analysts say, it 
seems there are two sets of laws--one that applies to wealthy, 
privileged whites, and another that applies to poor, underprivileged blacks.

Allen St. Pierre, a spokesman for the National Organization for the 
Reform of Marijuana Laws, says that blacks are three times as likely 
to be arrested over marijuana in the United States, even though 
actual use of the drug is just as common, he says, in wealthier white 
demographics like Cambridge.

While blacks comprise around 15 percent of the U.S. population and 15 
percent of drug users, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental 
Health Services Administration's Household Survey on Drug Use, they 
account for 36.8 percent of drug arrests.

In poor minority areas, St. Pierre says, individuals are forced to 
deal and smoke drugs in public spaces. But Harvard students have dorm 
rooms--and the notorious Science Center roof--where they seem to be 
able to smoke weed with impunity.

A freshman living in Pennypacker, who asked that his name not be used 
because he does not want his marijuana use to be widely known, says 
his proctor caught his next-door neighbors smoking pot in their room, 
but there seemed to have been no disciplinary consequences.

"They still smoke up in their room," he said. "So it must not have 
been that big of a deal."

The freshman joked that the only time he worries about being caught 
himself is when he is "paranoid from getting high."

Jim von der Heydt, the senior tutor in Winthrop House, says he "very 
rarely" has to deal with marijuana smoking in the House.

But interviews with students, and information provided by University 
Health Services (UHS), suggest that marijuana use is anything but 
rare at Harvard.

A 2004 National College Health Assessment Survey run by UHS found 
that 28.7 percent of a random sampling of Harvard students had tried 
marijuana, said Ryan Travia, director of the Office of Alcohol and 
Other Drug Services at UHS.

When von der Heydt does bust smokers, he says, the actions he takes 
are remedial rather than punitive.

"Nothing the College does is conceived of as 'punitive'," he wrote in 
an e-mail. "If a student's illicit behavior has impinged on her 
neighbors it needs to stop (though this can apply also to licit 
behavior, like a Dance Dance Revolution marathon over neighbor's objections)."

The House's response, he says, could involve referral to a clinician, 
a conversation between the student and House Masters, a formal House 
warning, or some combination of the three.

The Ad Board has record of only two "Inappropriate Behavior, Drugs" 
proceedings in 2004, both of which resulted in probation, according 
to the Board's published statistics. In comparison, the Board took 
disciplinary action in 20 alcohol-related cases last year.

And during the 2004-2005 school year, HUPD reported eight times as 
many violations of alcohol laws than drug laws.

A National Issue

St. Pierre says this type of treatment reflects national disparities 
in drug law enforcement, adding that enrollment at private colleges 
like Harvard amounts to a four-year reprieve from federal and state 
marijuana laws.

In university towns like Cambridge, arrests and convictions for 
marijuana use and distribution tend to be much lower per capita then 
almost anywhere else in the country, he says, as private colleges are 
often given leeway to deal with marijuana issues internally.

"Schools generally are much more tolerant about marijuana use," St. 
Pierre says. "A place like Cambridge represents a situation where 
there's a decidedly low per capita arrest rate."

And while experts say that drug convictions, particularly at an early 
age, can seriously hinder efforts to advance in education or in a 
career, Harvard students are at a much lower risk of facing such 
long-term consequences.

"Even if you don't spend one day in prison, a conviction on a drug 
charge is the equivalent to a life-long sentence," wrote Scarlett 
Swerdlow, the executive director of drug law reform group Students 
for Sensible Drug Policy, in an e-mail. "Youth can forget an 
education [with] a conviction on a drug charge--no matter the nature 
or number of the offense. You could have made a mistake twenty years 
ago, but are ready to turn your life around, only to find that the 
national government and even a handful of state governments won't 
grant you access to education through a federal financial aid ban 
found in the Higher Education Act."

St. Pierre also highlighted the difference in treatment of offenses 
at private colleges and state schools.

"Private schools give a greater deference to students and trying to 
get them through their education in the best possible way," he said. 
"State colleges are much more deferential to the state because they 
are an organ of the state."

But Catalano disagrees with this assessment.

"Any decision that HUPD makes has nothing to do with getting kids 
through college but with what is the most appropriate way to address 
the problem," he said.

At the University of Massachusetts, where St. Pierre went to school, 
the local and state police, rather than private campus police, are 
the ones called in to deal with offenses, he said, which can mean 
much more serious consequences.

"I think the statistics bear out that the traditionally 
under-represented and -served--including youth--bear the brunt of the 
Drug War," Swerdlow wrote. "Not only in terms of the time they spend 
behind bars--anywhere from one to five to ten to twenty to fifty 
years--but the life-long consequences that come with a conviction on 
a marijuana charge."

But It Can Happen

Drug arrests are so rare at Harvard, they quickly rise to the top of 
the student rumor mill, and the front pages of campus media.

In November 2004, a Harvard undergraduate was charged with possession 
of drugs with intent to distribute. Prompted by complaints that the 
smell of marijuana was permeating the hallway on the 12th floor of 
Mather Tower, police arrived at the room of Robert C. Schaffer '05 on 
the evening of March 17, 2004, Catalano told The Crimson last year.

Once the officers traced the smell to Schaffer's room, he allowed 
police to enter and opened his desk drawer to hand them what appeared 
to be a bag of marijuana, according to the incident report filed by 
HUPD Officer Thomas F. Karns Jr., as reported by The Crimson.

After searching the room, HUPD confiscated 45 clear plastic bags 
containing herb-like substances which the report described as 
marijuana and psilocybin, a blue purse holding "an off-white waxy 
substance that was in flakes and a solid yellow chunk of an unknown 
substance," a pipe, a 200-gram weight and scale, a large black 
hunting knife, and a small box of rolling papers.

The case is yet to be resolved.

But even criminal charges don't intimidate some Harvard students. Joe 
said he thinks that even if he were to be arrested, he would easily 
be able to get out of it by having his parents hire good lawyers and 
by using a bit of his own legal savvy.

"All it takes is a modicum of intelligence [to defend ourselves]," he 
said. "We have the Fourth Amendment and strict evidentiary requirements."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman