MISGUIDED PENALTY

Law Aimed At Students Could Result In More Drug Abuse, Not Less.

Drug war casualties just keep piling up, beckoning an overhaul of policies
that are often counterproductive. A recent example is the law that
penalizes college students who've been punished for a drug offense, ruling
them ineligible for low-interest federal education loans and grants for one
academic year.

The last thing we want to do is make it unnecessarily harder for people to
stay in college. Drug crimes obviously must not go unpunished, with
rehabilitation being the goal. But effectively booting students from
college who've served a judge's sentence would only make matters worse.

Without the ability to better themselves through college, students already
motivated to stay in school and learn will be left open to society's
fringes to focus on using or selling again. That does no one any good in
the end.

Russell Selkirk, a freshman at Ohio State University, was found guilty of
smoking marijuana in a car in December 1999. His sentence was a $250 fine,
suspension of his driver's license, 20 hours of community service and a
year's probation.

He applied for financial aid for the coming academic year a month later and
was denied because of the offense. And since many of those arrested and
charged are poor, they often drop out, increasing the chance they'll never
return and finish.

The enforcement also calls into question again the disproportionate number
of African Americans who get arrested for drug offenses. While about 13
percent of the people taking illicit drugs are black, the same as their
proportion in the general population, blacks represent 55 percent of the
drug convictions, said David Borden, executive director of the Drug Reform
Coordination Network.

That's unfair and disproportionately damaging to families and communities.
The newly enforced law, passed in 1998 and brought to life by the Bush
administration, only adds to an already existing problem.

Students convicted on drug charges become ineligible for federal financial
aid and loans for one year after a possession conviction, or for two years
after a conviction for selling drugs. If they undergo a rehabilitation
program that includes two random urine tests, they can be excused. Repeat
offenders can face permanent loss of federal assistance to attend college.

No other crime carries such a provision, points out Gov. Gary E. Johnson of
New Mexico, who has sponsored state legislation to decriminalize possession
of small amounts of marijuana.

The sudden enforcement of this bad law has energized students. Nearly 60
student governments have passed resolutions against the law, many of them
complaining that it unfairly punishes students in financial need, while
wealthier students with drug records face no retribution.

Students for a Sensible Drug Policy has seen 90 chapters open on college
campuses, with another 200 in the works, largely as a result student
protesting the law.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., reintroduced legislation to repeal the law.
That would be the wise thing to do.