STUDENT RIGHTS GO UP IN SMOKE AT FPU

Last week, four students at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge
returned to their on-campus apartment to find that they had been
locked out. The students were not allowed to enter the house to eat,
sleep or get their books for 26 hours.

A routine maintenance check had turned up an empty grinder, allegedly
used for marijuana. When police fully searched the house, they did in
fact find a small bag of marijuana.

When sophomore Robert Braverman was arrested on Oct. 4, hundreds of
students at FPU rallied in front of his home to protest police action
and the university's drug policy.

The policy created this summer is to notify local police about
suspected drug use on campus. This case has highlighted concerns
about student's rights against unreasonable search and seizure.

Although university officials claim the policy isn't intended to
punish students, but instead to clarify both police and campus safety
roles in criminal incidents, student outrage is understandable. It's
unclear why such drastic action needs to be taken against students of
a victimless crime.

As is the case at Keene State College, campus safety officers at FPU
lack the authorization to deal with criminal matters on campus
because they are not licensed to do so.

The reaction by FPU officials and the Rindge Police Department
mirrors on a small scale the misdirected focus of effort with respect
to the national War on Drugs and laws against the use of marijuana.

Millions of people convicted of drug, specifically marijuana,
offenses are clogging up prisons and unnecessarily wasting billions
of dollars in taxes each year.

Who was being hurt by the possession of this illicit
substance?

The FPU student was removed from his class for questioning, an action
which likely interrupted his academic well-being more than the
effects of his recreational substance of choice. After all, he was in
class.

And instead of condemning petty drug offenders (there are many
exceptions to this, like selling drugs to kids) to prison, we should
be providing social programs aimed at helping people back on their
feet after falling victim to more serious drugs.