PUBLIC SAFETY SHOWS OFF CONTRABAND COLLECTION

When he joined the Office of Public Safety in 1993, Master Patrol
Officer Dirk Hightchew said he knew part of his job would be to
confiscate beer kegs. He never expected to confiscate a human skull
stolen from a crypt.

Hightchew said he entered a room on a routine marijuana complaint
when he saw a human skull sitting in plain view on the student's
shelf. He confiscated it and sent it to the coroner's lab for
testing. Hightchew said the results determined because of its age,
the skull was stolen from a crypt.

"The student took it and kept it as an artifact," Hightchew said.
"The skull was one of the more bizarre things I've found."

In order to educate the campus about the contraband he collects,
Hightchew put together a display containing the strangest items he
has confiscated from students during his career. The items in the
display include drug paraphernalia and illegal weapons.

Hightchew said he uses the display during resident assistant
training and for various educational programs throughout the year.

He said all items in the display were confiscated because they were
in plain view in a room that he entered as a result of a routine
noise or drug complaint.

"Students know that if we catch them smoking, they will only get a
judicial referral," Hightchew said. "So they're usually more than
happy to give us consent [to search]."

The display is also used in a legal studies class and in the class
Peer Advocacy: Alcohol, Drugs and the College Student, taught by
Priscilla Quirk, the college's Coordinator of Health Promotion and
Substance Abuse Prevention.

"The display is an incredible visual of what people will go through
to use their drug of choice," Quirk said. "It lets students see how
people's lives are so wrapped up in drug use that they don't
function in other areas of their life."

Hightchew said he doesn't always confiscate weird items. Normally,
he finds and takes glass marijuana pipes, water bongs - including
hand-signed Tommy Chong bongs - and beer kegs. He often finds stolen
college property, usually banquet tables used for drinking games.

A number of years ago, Hightchew said several students took the
12-foot Ithaca College emblem that was displayed on a wall in
Emerson Suites. He said the students made it all the way to the
Towers before the Student Auxiliary Safety Patrol stopped them.

"Everything's a trophy if it has the college name or logo on it," he said.

Hightchew said one of his oddest experiences occurred during his
first year on the job. He said when he arrived at a dorm to
investigate a complaint of marijuana odor, he not only found
students smoking, but he also found the mask for the college's
Bomber mascot, an item that had been missing for years.

"I had no idea what it was," Hightchew said. "The kids didn't know
how it got into their room, either."

Investigator Tom Dunn, who helps Hightchew with the display, said
Public Safety has the right to take illegal items like weapons and
drug paraphernalia, whether or not the students hand over the property.

"If we find the item on a student or in the student's possession
during a search, we will take it," Dunn said.

Dunn said some of the confiscated weapons, including a blackjack
club, a throwing star and a pair of brass knuckles with a blade are
illegal to possess.

Among the drug paraphernalia Hightchew has seized are two blow
tubes. A blow tube is a hollow container that is stuffed with fabric
softener. After inhaling marijuana smoke, a person exhales into the
tube, using the fabric softener to absorb the odor, Hightchew said.
"It usually doesn't work," he said.

Hightchew said it's surprising what students will use to get high.
For example, in the collection, there is a gas mask with a plastic
bong attached to the bottom of it.

Dunn said one of the more unusual items is a blue highlighter with a
small marijuana pipe hidden in it.

Hightchew said Public Safety subscribes to the magazine High Times
in order to keep current with "what students are using to smoke these days."

Other objects include a bong made from a Pyrex glass and a rubber
stopper stolen from the Center for Natural Sciences, an "Instabong"
kit and a hospital oxygen mask hooked up to an electric fan.

Dunn said the fan was converted into a marijuana pipe and blows the
smoke through a connecting plastic tube into the mask.

"They look interesting," Dunn said. "But I doubt their true effectiveness."