EDUCATION ACT: 'DO DRUGS, NO GRANT FOR YOU'

Title IV of the Higher Education Act is up for reform this year, a
law that has reportedly affected more than 160,000 students across the nation.

Sec. 483 of Title IV of the Higher Education Act states "a student
who has been convicted of any offense under any Federal or State law
involving the possession or sale of a controlled substance shall not
be eligible to receive any grant, loan or work assistance under this title ..."

Periods of ineligibility vary, depending on the number of offenses.
In general, a student convicted of one offense is ineligible for a
year, two offenses marks ineligible for two years and three offenses
brings indefinite ineligibility.

There is a provision allowing students to get their aid re-instated
early if they undergo a federally approved drug treatment program,
including two un-announced drug tests.

While this may appear to balance out what may be viewed as a harsh
law, Students for Sensible Drug Policy isn't so sure.

"Students who are able to afford college education on their own
without public assistance are very unlikely to be able to afford
expensive private treatment programs," Tom Angell, SSDP campaign
director, said.

The law, originally written by Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., was designed
to deter students from using drugs, but some argue it is an
ineffective deterrent.

"A lot of students don't know about this law until they're filling
out the financial aid application and come across this drug
conviction question," Angell said. "It doesn't act as a deterring for
a number of reasons, one of them being a lot of people don't know about it."

While this law is intended to reduce drug abuse, Angell said it
actually causes more drug abuse.

"Students who are enrolled in college use less drugs than their same
age peers not enrolled in college," he said. "By blocking somebody's
access to education, you're actually increasing chances that their
going to get involved in drug abuse.

If students are unable receive financial aid, this may close off many
opportunities to them, Angell said.

According to Angell, college graduates make 62 percent more every
year in taxable income than high school graduates.

"The reduced earnings not only hurt them, but the reduce payments in
taxes hurts society as a whole," Angell said. "This provision is
slashing revenue in a time of budget shortfalls around the country.
It seems fiscally irresponsible."

Rep. Souder, who originally wrote the law, has reportedly
characterized this law as "draconian" and has called for it to be reformed.

SSDP report that Rep. Souder's new proposal would allow some students
with prior drug convictions to receive aid, but would still strip aid
from students who get convicted while attending college.

This, according to the SSDP Web site, is "only a 10 percent solution
to a law that is 100 percent flawed."

"This law really does nothing to help solve our nations drug abuse
problems," Angell said. "It only makes them worse."