Student Speech Deserves Constitutional Protection No Matter How Strange It May Be High school students have a right to free speech, even if that speech concerns something controversial. This is a principle that the Supreme Court has affirmed in the past, and one that it should reaffirm in deciding a case it heard last week concerning a student who was punished for displaying a drug-related message across the street from his school. The case concerns Joseph Frederick, a high school student who was suspended for holding up a 14-foot banner that read "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" on the sidewalk next to his school at the 2002 Olympic torch relay in Juneau, Alaska. His principal argued that the sign encouraged drug use and interfered with the educational mission of the school. [continues 367 words]
Mandatory Minimums for Drug Convictions in a School Zone Must Be Changed Suppose you are one of the many Harvard students who illicitly uses marijuana on a regular basis. And now imagine the worst case scenario: you are enjoying a post-exam spliff in the company of friends in a private bedroom. Then, from the door, an ominous voice intones, "Open up. It's HUPD." You are arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. But that extent, Harvard students should be well aware, varies wildly. [continues 533 words]
Law Enforcers Have Not Been Hesitant To Apply School Zone Drug Laws To Harvard Students Eliot House might be no more than a stroll away from Winthrop House, but for students caught dabbling in drugs, the two can feel years apart. Two years, to be exact. Penalty minimums for suspects convicted of drug possession with intent to distribute 1,000 feet from a school disproportionately affects an unlikely group, besides inner-city dwellers and the poor: Harvard students. Ten of the school's 12 undergraduate residential Houses fall, at least partially, within that 1,000-foot radius--a designation that would tack on a mandatory minimum of two years to a convict's sentence. [continues 1308 words]
Harvard Students Need to Lighten Up and Learn to Bake Hypocrisy is hardly foreign to Harvard University, yet I still find it ironic and somewhat disconcerting that so many Harvard students are willing to consume obscene amounts of alcohol every weekend but blithely stigmatize the minority of their peers who like to get high. I can't tell you how many times I have seen people-who apparently have no problem blacking out, puking in a toilet bowl, and hooking up with utter strangers-shudder with horror and righteous indignation when someone mentions smoking weed. Of course, this silly taboo among Harvard students is not surprising; it reflects the deep-seated double-standard about alcohol and marijuana use that exists in American society as a whole. [continues 531 words]
To the editors: Regarding Juliet S. Samuel's thoughtful op-ed of Oct. 10 ("Drug Policy? What Are You, High?"), the drug war is in large part a war on marijuana, by far the most popular illicit drug. Punitive marijuana laws have little, if any, deterrent value. The University of Michigan's "Monitoring the Future" study reports that lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the United States than in any European country, yet America is one of the few Western countries that uses its criminal justice system to punish citizens who prefer marijuana to martinis. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to have caused an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. The short-term health effects of marijuana are inconsequential compared to the long-term effects of criminal records. Unfortunately, marijuana represents the counterculture to many Americans. [continues 106 words]
Last week the University Health Services (UHS) Health Fair came to town, complete with such goodies as free massages and tiny boxes of Sunmaid raisins. Students left loaded up with pens, pamphlets, and tips for "wellness." One of the stalls, however, was not organized by UHS but by the Office of Alcohol and Other Drug Services (AODS). Its leaflets contained such informational gems as, "You still think marijuana isn't bad for you? What are you, high?" The message was clear: Don't do drugs, man. [continues 836 words]
When Drug Users Lose Federal Funding, Harvard Steps In High school marijuana users everywhere breathed a heavy, smoke-tinged sigh of relief this past February 1. On that day, Congress amended the Higher Education Act (HEA): College students with pre-college drug offenses would again be eligible for federal financial aid. But students with offenses during college still forfeit their funds from the government--and a spate of drug-related incidents earlier this year at Harvard has raised questions about the inviolability of financial aid at the College. [continues 1024 words]
Why We Disclose the Identities of Students Charged With Drug Crimes This is the second in a series of bi-weekly columns designed to explain The Crimson's policy decisions and coverage choices. While stories of faculty politics and administrative infighting have dominated The Crimson's front pages, few articles published in the last two months have been as newsworthyaE"or as controversialaE"as our account of a drug arrest in Quincy House on Feb. 24. Campus police searched a Quincy House dorm and arrested a 20-year-old sophomore for marijuana and LSD possession. The department released the sophomore's name in an e-mail to a reporter, and that name appeared on the cover of The CrimsonaE"along with a police officer's account of the incident and interviews with some of the arrested student's acquaintances. [continues 1022 words]
While The Rules Seem Tough On Paper, Harvard May Actually Be - Or At Least Has Been - A Toker's Paradise The newcomer walked in to the party and took his place among the throng of unsuspecting first-years. After asking the hosts to turn down the music, he then said that he'd need their alcohol. An awkward way to ask for a drink, perhaps. The party's host, Mark, a current sophomore who asked FM to keep his name private because he does not want to be associated with the event, didn't think much of the odd visitor at first. Reaching into his desk, Mark says he then took out a bag of marijuana. That was enough for the visitor, who then asked Mark to cut the music. This mysterious partygoer was shutting this party down. He was a freshman proctor. [continues 851 words]
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. [continues 1673 words]
Ah, the high-rolling life of Beren Professor of Economics N. Gregory Mankiw. Presiding over a packed Sanders Theatre of freshmen hanging on his every word, the former Chairman of the Council of Economic advisors strikes fear in the hearts of men. A lone sophomore among the '09ers, each of them one rhetorical flourish away from disproving at least one major theorem, Mankiw's axioms inspire me against my will. "Economics... will help you understand the world in which you live," according to the class textbook, and "make you a more astute participant in the economy." How true it is. [continues 588 words]
Researchers at Harvard and Brandeis Universities were awarded a $1.3 million grant from the National Institute of Drug Abuse last week to undertake a five-year study into the most medically and financially effective ways to combat substance abuse problems through managed care. "The point of the grant is to look at how various kinds of organizations and financing arrangements affect the quality and cost of substance abuse care...to help real world programs do a better job with the money they put into substance abuse programs and to help [them] redesign how they do things," said Harvard Medical School (HMS) Morris Professor of Health Economics Richard G. Frank, who will be a co-principal investigator on the project. "Hopefully it can really make a difference." [continues 472 words]
In 2001, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a majority opinion contending that marijuana has "no currently accepted medical use." In the United States, this is true, but one cannot be sure whether this is because marijuana truly has no medical use, or simply because marijuana's medical benefits have not yet been proven. In the coming weeks, Justice Thomas and the Supreme Court will again hear a case involving marijuana. This pivotal suit tests the California law which legalizes marijuana use for critically ill patients. The federal government will argue that federal law--which classifies marijuana as an illegal substance--takes precedence over California law. [continues 778 words]
The Bush administration's support for a crackdown on heroin production in Afghanistan may spark a rise in AIDS throughout central Asia, a drug policy expert told an Institute of Politics forum last night. Sanho Tree, of the Institute for Policy Studies-a Washington-based think-tank-warned that many addicts in countries surrounding Afghanistan have become dependent on pure heroin, the only type which can be smoked. But if U.S. anti-drug policies reduce the amount of pure heroin available, addicts will be forced to use impure heroin, which requires injection, Tree said. [continues 383 words]
The production and use of marijuana for medicinal purposes is protected by the Constitution, a Boston University (B.U.) Law School professor argued to a group of about 50 Harvard students last night. Professor Randy E. Barnett, a 1977 graduate of Harvard Law School, is currently engaged in a legal battle over the use of medicinal marijuana, representing a group of California residents who say that they use marijuana for medicinal purposes. The residents, who call themselves the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative, are currently defending their case in federal court. [continues 506 words]
My improbable cannabis enlightenment began in 1967. I was concerned that so many young people were using the terribly dangerous drug marijuana, so I decided to review the medical and scientific literature on the substance and write a reasonably objective and scientifically sound paper on its dangers. Young people were ignoring the warnings of the government, but perhaps some would seriously consider a well-documented review of the available data. As I began to explore the literature, I discovered, to my astonishment, that I had to seriously question my own understanding. What I thought I knew was based largely on myths, old and new. I realized how little my training in science and medicine had protected me against this misinformation. I had become not just a victim of a disinformation campaign, but because I am a physician, one of its agents as well. [continues 891 words]
In front of a standing-room only crowd at the Graduate School of Education Friday, MIT Professor of Linguistics Noam Chomsky and fellow activists urged progressive groups to form alliances to bring about social change. Chomsky was joined by Leonida Zurita Vargas, the leader of a women's peasant movement in Bolivia; Carolina Contreras, a socially active Somerville High School sophomore; Mel King, a former Massachusetts state representative; and Lev Grossman-Spivack, a Boston University junior who creates activist lyrics and poetry, at the forum, entitled "Another World is Possible". [continues 853 words]
Marisa Garcia was a senior in high school that fateful night when she was stopped by the police near her California home. Her car was inspected, and a small pipe containing marijuana resin was found. Garcia received a ticket for marijuana possession, went to court, paid a $400 fine, and thought the matter was finished. She was wrong. Some months later, her application for financial aid from the California State University system was sent back to her because she inadvertently failed to answer the infamous Question 35, which asks whether or not an applicant has ever been convicted of possessing or selling drugs other than tobacco or alcohol. [continues 1043 words]
To the editors: Kevin Sabet's recent letter ("Staff Position on Pot Ignores Growing Cost," April 17) criticizing decriminalization of marijuana is typical of drug warriors who are willing to manipulate the facts in order to perpetuate a self-interested political agenda. Sabet's claim that drug use has gone down in the past 20 years is based on a government survey that asks people to admit to illegal activity. Perhaps a more accurate measure of the effect of drug use on this country is the number of overdose deaths and emergency room visits, which the government's own Department of Health and Human Services reports has escalated since the early 1980s and is currently at a record high. The same is true for Sabet's ridiculous claim that the Dutch saw an exorbitant rise in marijuana use after decriminalization. The conclusion is drawn from a survey, and of course teens will be more willing to admit to an act once its legal. [continues 264 words]
On a fairly frequent basis last year, technicians at Massachusetts General Hospital injected 40 milligrams of cocaine directly into the bloodstream of cocaine addicts. With a set of defibrillators kept handy in case of cardiac arrest, the addicts were given MRIs and monitored for changes in heart rate and blood pressure. The subjects walked out of the hospital with some information on drug addiction, their anonymity and a gift certificate for $260 to a supermarket in exchange for a promise not to use any more cocaine that day. [continues 429 words]
