APPALACHIAN DRUG POLICY: A HISTORICAL BATTLE

Editor's Note: This is the third article of a four-part series on
drug policies.

With a strong drug policy reform movement and a former chancellor
speaking out against drug laws, Appalachian State University has long
been a battleground for drug debate.

Since December 2000, the Appalachian American Civil Liberties Union
has voiced opposition to the Higher Education Act Aid Elimination
Penalty, which denies financial aid to students with one misdemeanor
marijuana conviction.

Supporters of HEA reform were led by then-Appalachian student Ian
Mance, a former ACLU co-president and initiator of a proposal to pass
a bill in student government to fight the HEA aid elimination.

Surveys disseminated by the ACLU showed 73 percent of Appalachian
students were in favor of HEA reform in 2000, Mance said.

However, the decision to pass the bill had two clear sides.

The opponents to the proposal included former Appalachian Student
Government Association President Ryan Bolick and former members of
The Appalachian editorial staff, who wrote "repealing such statutes
would be detrimental to a nation already in the midst of a moral decline."

In March of 2000, the bill was defeated, but was still successful
because it raised awareness, Mance said.

"I never saw such a big turnout at SGA as when the drug reform issue
was hot," Mance said.

The College Republicans, Mance said, brought their parents and
grandparents to the SGA meetings to show strong opposition to drug reform.

To conclude the battle, after a meeting with ACLU representatives,
former Chancellor Frank T. Borkowski came out as the first public
university chancellor in the country in favor of repealing the drug
provision, Mance said.

Borkowski wrote, in a letter to Rep. Cass Ballenger, "It is my
experience that when given the opportunity to excel, the results with
students who have past drug convictions has been overwhelmingly
positive it is counterproductive to deny education to any student,
especially in communities that are marginalized in today's society."

Drug debate at Appalachian came to a head again in March 2005 when
Appalachian's student senate passed legislation to equalize penalties
for alcohol and marijuana violations on campus.

The equalization was never instated.

SGA President Forrest S. Gilliam was a senate member when the
legislation was introduced. He chose to vote against the proposal.

"I predicted that the university would choose to make the alcohol
punishments stricter, but I do have a problem with [penalties] being
unequal," Gilliam said.

University Attorney Dayton T. Cole said if students press for equal
punishments for alcohol and marijuana, the only outcome could be a
harsher punishment for alcohol offenses, based on Board of Governors' policies.

Appalachian ACLU President Clark C. Anderson, who helped introduce
the equalization legislation, said the parental notification after
the first marijuana offense "goes too far for college students
because parents could overreact and pull students out of school."

Parents are not notified after the first alcohol offense.

"It comes to who is paying for the student to come to the
university," Office of Student Conduct Director Judy M. Haas said.
"It's about notifying someone who knows you. We want to find the best
resolution to better help the student."

University Police Chief Gunther E. Doerr said he "sees how the logic
could make sense" for equal penalties for underage drinking and small
possession of marijuana because they are both misdemeanor infractions.

"Right, wrong or indifferent, there seems to be in the adult world
more acceptance of alcohol than drug use," Doerr said.

Help End Marijuana Prohibition/National Organization for the Reform
of Marijuana Laws President Josh C. Kleinstreuer said
alcohol-versus-cannabis studies are outdated.

At his Appalachian freshman orientation, Kleinstreuer recalled being
told, "men who use marijuana grow breasts."

Anderson said one of Appalachian's ACLU chapter's focuses is to make
the drug policy on campus more fair.

"The university and government shouldn't overreact," he said. "In a
free society the government shouldn't punish a person for something
that doesn't harm other people."