I would like to raise awareness of the lack of celebration for the 20th anniversary of the enactment of our university's zero tolerance drug policy - a policy that our administrators would be wise to retire. In the fall of 1988 we welcomed President McComas to Virginia Tech. On his first day on the job, he held a meeting with the deans and provost expressing his concern for students' quality of life outside the classroom. March 17, the next semester, Virginia Tech enacted the zero tolerance drug policy while students were absent on spring break. There was not even a mention of this policy change in the Collegiate Times the entire year. [continues 966 words]
In response to the Dallas Morning News editorial "Phelps, pot and dealing with the consequences" published in Thursday's Collegiate Times, I wish to provide the missing link between "pot smokers like Michael Phelps" and "innocent Mexicans killed by drug cartels" that the editorial board chose to leave absent. At Virginia Tech's Public Forum on Alcohol and Other Drug Policies last October, a cadet student posited that I and all the students who advocate for change of our Zero Tolerance drug policy are not proud to be Hokies. While I respect that he came forward and shared his views, I cannot help but think that he and the Dallas Morning News editor are missing the same common point: that policies can be improved and that our current drug policies are broken. [continues 297 words]
Underneath the "hips" and "hoorays" being shouted across the world as America elects our first president who happens to be black, a ball of tumbleweed rolls down from the silent, dusty Wall Street to Main Street in Blacksburg. Economists say we face the greatest economic challenge since the Great Depression. We cannot simply throw our money at the problem and expect the CEOs to bail us out. What we need is a variety of effective, future-oriented investments aimed toward our infrastructure and energy technology sectors, as well as a variety of money-generating solutions to help our economy recover from its drunken stumble toward a devastating depression. [continues 303 words]
As graduates of D.A.R.E. drug education in the fifth grade, we each have the responsibility to give our feedback to politicians and parents who in turn have the responsibility to better educate their children. Since President Bush vetoed the recent children's health insurance plan, I have to doubt his commitment to children's health. President Bush continues to spend billions of taxpayer dollars on D.A.R.E., while both the General Accounting Office of the U.S. government and the National Academy of Science have determined D.A.R.E. ineffective. We must overcome our inability to replace D.A.R.E. with effective, science-based drug education. [continues 135 words]
