Pubdate: Tue, 02 Jan 2007
Source: Athens News, The (OH)
Copyright: 2007, Athens News
Contact:  http://www.athensnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1603
Author: Jim Phillips
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

OFFICIAL: POT CRACKDOWN PROBABLY COMING

Ohio University's vice president for student affairs  said recently
that while plans to revise OU discipline  rules for student drug
offenses are still a work in  progress, he's pretty sure that when a
draft of the new  policy is unveiled next spring, it will include
stronger penalties for marijuana violations.

"Yes, and I think I need to be honest about that," Kent  Smith told
The Athens NEWS in a mid-December interview.  "I'll put it to you this
way -- I would be very  surprised if we ended up with the same policy
we have  right now, as far as sanctions."

Under current disciplinary policy, Smith noted, "you  can receive a
harsher penalty for an alcohol violation  than for a marijuana
violation. And that, in my view,  is wrong."

OU has already made changes in its Student Code of  Conduct regarding
penalties for alcohol offenses. It is  now considering parts of the
student code that deal  with drug offenses including those involving
marijuana.

The OU administration earlier this year asked Student  Senate to offer
input on what its members thought any  new drug discipline policy
should look like.

Senate brought forth a resolution last month, calling  for more
consistent sanctions, and a greater focus on  education in the new
policy.

Among the concrete suggestions in the resolution,  Senate would like
to see the penalty for a first  offense of less than 100 grams of pot
be three to six  months of probation and a mandatory drug education
class, and a second violation carry an automatic one  year of probation.

OU senior Stephanie Pleli is a member of Students  Defending Students,
a group that weighed in critically  on the earlier changes to OU's
alcohol policies.

Pleli said Friday that many students would like to see  any new drug
policy be clearer and more consistent than  the current one, making
the basis for each type of  disciplinary charge more explicit, and
allowing for  finer distinctions between more and less serious
offenses based on the facts of each individual case.

"The problem with a lot of the charges is, they're very  vague, the
way the Student Code of Conduct is written,"  Pleli maintained. "What
we would like is to have a  distinction within sanctions. For example,
possession  of (drug) paraphernalia should not be an 'A' charge,
ever." (OU uses a letter scale for different levels of  charges, with
an A-level offense being more serious  than a B-level offense.)

Pleli said she also would like to see professional  counselors brought
more into the disciplinary process,  to make decisions on appropriate
sanctions in cases  where students are found to have serious
substance-abuse problems.

"Part of our resolution was that we would talk to the  university
about hiring a chemical-dependency  counselor," she explained. "We
thought it would be  helpful, if it's a more serious charge that a
person  would be going to court for, they should see a  dependency
counselor, and the counselor would decide  what kind of sanction to
impose... They would be able  to assess that better than judiciaries
would."

Smith insisted that his seeking student input is more  than just
window dressing, and that the suggestions of  the students will carry
real weight in the writing of  the new policy.

"I can tell you, I'm going to take their input very  seriously, and
that's one of the reasons I wanted to  talk to them first, because
this was going to have a  big impact on them policy-wise," Smith said.

This quarter, Smith said, he will forward Student  Senate's
recommendations to OU's Review and Standards  Committee, a standing
committee that includes faculty,  staffers and students.

After that group adds its input, a draft plan will be  unveiled for
further public feedback, with the aim  being to have the plan adopted
and implemented by fall  2007.

Smith said he thinks Student Senate is on the right  track with its
emphasis on education. "Definitely the  students feel strongly about
the educational side of  the policy, and actually, I'm in agreement
with that,"  he said. "There will be an educational component to  this."

The official said he doesn't necessarily agree with  some critics that
the current policy is hard to  understand, "but if students are saying
it's confusing,  we need to make every effort to make it clear."

In a Student Senate discussion of the planned policy  changes in
November, one student senator argued that  there are significant
differences between marijuana and  alcohol, and that it might not be
appropriate to make  the disciplinary policies for the two drugs
"congruent."

Smith, however, said he believes OU must take pot  violations
seriously, regardless of whatever  differences in effect may exist
among different drugs,  because using or possessing marijuana is still
a crime.

"As an educational entity, and as a public institution,  we should
follow the laws of the land," he argued. "And  at this point, the law
says that this is an illegal  substance. And we have to teach young
people to obey  the laws of the land."

OU faced some resistance from students when it  tightened up its
alcohol policy, and ended up backing  off slightly from some of the
increased penalties it  had originally called for.

Under the new alcohol policy, which went into effect  last May,
students arrested or written up for any  alcohol-related offense get
an automatic six-month  probation.

If a student commits a second alcohol offense in that  six month's
time, no matter how minor the offense, he  or she faces automatic
suspension (except in  "extenuating circumstances," which are not
spelled out  in the policy).

Underage freshmen and sophomores who break alcohol  rules have letters
sent home to their parents or  guardians. All cases are referred to OU
Judiciaries,  even if the offense takes place off-campus, and
offenders must submit to an alcohol audit to determine  what kind of
alcohol educational program they must  undergo. 
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MAP posted-by: Steve Heath