U.S. ATTORNEY'S LETTER TO REED COLLEGE FIRST STEP IN A MUCH-NEEDED
DRUG EDUCATION

College students experiment. They change hairstyles, majors, even
sexual orientations. And at Reed College, as on most campuses, some
experiment with illegal drugs.

That's the way it's always been. Smart kids do dumb things to help
figure out who they are.

Which is why some students and alumni of the prestigious Southeast
Portland school were taken aback last month when local prosecutors
demanded that Reed adopt a "zero tolerance" approach to illegal drugs
or risk losing federal funding.

On the eve of Renn Fayre, the end-of-year celebration, Multnomah
County District Attorney Mike Schrunk and U.S. Attorney Dwight Holton
reminded Reedies that two of their own died recently from heroin overdoses.

"There has been this two-tiered drug policy at Reed, with different
standards for different drugs," Holton said. "The result is an
unofficial legitimizing of all drug use."

Here's the underlying truth: Nobody thinks drugs will disappear from
campus. They'd just like the exceedingly intelligent people at Reed --
both students and administrators -- to do what a Reed education
teaches: consider every angle and choose wisely.

College guides note the easy access Reed students enjoy to marijuana
and hallucinogens. Controlled mayhem is the name of the geeky game at
Renn Fayre. Even the faculty handbook's section on drugs begins on a
grudging note: "Drug and alcohol use is a complex and controversial
topic. Many would argue that public policy on drug and alcohol use has
been counterproductive, discouraging rational analysis of substance
use, abuse and addiction..."

Student leaders say the level of campus abuse has been overblown by
Reed's countercultural rep and openness about drugs. "We've been
portrayed as spoiled or out of control," said Celia Hassan, Reed's
student body president. "The truth is that people here work very hard
and earn a great deal of autonomy."

I'm with Hassan on the broader point. If everyone on campus is a
stoner, why do so many Reed graduates do so many great things?

Yet I also get where prosecutors are coming from. Heroin is back. The
folks who fight crime are desperate to avoid a meth-like epidemic of
overdoses and violence.

Reed students, generally more affluent and open to experimentation,
are an appealing market for dealers. Administrators and students draw
intellectual distinctions between marijuana and more serious narcotics
- -- "Heroin is not condoned here, not at all," Hassan said. But
prosecutors correctly note that one can lead to another, particularly
when the door is already open to dealers.

"If this were just a bunch of people smoking pot, we wouldn't be
having this conversation," Holton said. "At the same time, an illegal
drug is an illegal drug. That message has to be clear and
unambiguous."

Yet this situation is undeniably ambiguous, like the broader "war on
drugs." Police don't have the time to arrest every Reedie with a
joint. Administrators and alums rightly cherish Reed's reputation for
intellectual exploration. Nobody wants an environment in which
students who need help are too worried about legal consequences to
seek it.

The buttoned-down prosecutor and the student leader with a stud in her
nose both circle around to the same basic answer: honest conversations
between the card-carrying adults and the students who want to be
treated that way.

"Simply saying, 'Don't do drugs,' isn't going to work with our student
body," Hassan said. "You need to take a more intellectual approach."

"Discourse is the most effective path to change at Reed," Holton said.
"In a sense, the letter was a way to get everyone's attention."