EXCESSES OF WAR ON DRUGS AREN'T FAIR TO PEOPLE THEY AFFECT

HERE'S another example of how America's war on drugs has devolved into
a war on people.

In 1998, Congress passed an amendment in the Higher Education Act to
deny federal financial aid to college students convicted for
possession or sale of illegal drugs. In America, you can be convicted
for rape, murder or drunk driving and still qualify for federal aid as
long as you didn't smoke pot.

The measure isn't as harsh as it first sounds. Convictions before age
18 don't apply. The ineligibility period lasts for one year for a
first-possession offense and two years for a first-dealing offense,
but is "indefinite' for repeat offenders. Even then, would-be students
can have the ban lifted by completing drug rehabilitation and passing
two drug tests.

Despite that, it's still a bad idea.

It's so bad that U.S. Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., has suggested that
students sue the government if they are denied aid for long-ago
convictions. Souder's aides blame "the Clinton administration's
misinterpretation' of the law, though they still support the ban as a
deterrent. They say the law was never meant to apply to offenses
committed before entering college. Souder aide Martin Green explained
that the congressman's evangelical Christian beliefs reject punishing
people for old wrongs they have addressed.

In that spirit, Souder has tried repeatedly to change the amendment so
that it only applies to arrests of current students. But, you see, in
Washington, it is easier to pass a bad law than to fix one.

Better to junk the whole thing, says Marisa Garcia, who in 2000
discovered she couldn't qualify for student aid because of an arrest
for possession of a marijuana pipe. Now a junior at California State
University at Fullerton majoring in sociology, Garcia was able to stay
in school with the help of her mother, and she now qualifies for
federal financial aid. But her experience with the law was not positive.

Souder's staff claims the ban is a deterrent to drug use. No way,
responded Garcia. She didn't know about the ban before her arrest. If
the law is a deterrent, it is a deterrent to going to college. A
congressional advisory committee agrees, as a report released last
month noted that drug questions "can deter some students from filing
for financial aid.'

Garcia also doesn't believe the government should punish her twice for
one crime. "I had already paid my fine. I broke the law. I have a
misdemeanor on my record now,' said Garcia. If you commit other
crimes, "you get punished once. I don't think that people with drug
convictions should get punished twice.'

For its part, the Souder camp really does think the ban is a
deterrent. It's not too harsh, it says, because students can attend
drug rehab. (Garcia said rehab cost more than tuition.) Martin Green
said the ban prevents those who would "squander taxpayer dollars'
adding, "These are not going to be your best students.'

I don't know that Green is right about that. In my college years,
there was no shortage of students who, despite their drug use, had
high GPAs. Indiana's new Republican governor, former Bush budget
director Mitch Daniels, was arrested for marijuana possession in
college, and it's pretty clear he learned something at Princeton.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., has led the fight to repeal the Souder
amendment, supported by Students for a Sensible Drug Policy. I wish
them luck and GOP support.

I agree with Souder that lawbreakers do not have an automatic right to
federal financial aid, although the government may be committing
double jeopardy by punishing convicts twice for one offense.

To the charge that Souder is soft on other crimes, his staff responds
that he is willing to expand the list of offenses. It's funny, though,
because when Souder had his shot at legislation, he targeted drug
users and dealers instead of violent or career criminals.

My theory on the drug war is that it is popular largely because
parents will support draconian sentences for other people's children
(bad kids) in order to protect their own children (good kids) from
doing what the bad kids do. It doesn't occur to these parents that
their kids could be on the punishment end. They think they're on the
side of law and order.

Not everyone with a badge agrees. John W. Perry was a New York police
officer who publicly protested drug-war excesses. He was signing his
resignation papers on Sept. 11 when the first plane hit the World
Trade Center. He grabbed back his badge and gun, rushed to action, and
died in the service of others.

Opponents of the Souder amendment set up a scholarship fund in Perry's
name for students who couldn't get student aid because of the Souder
legislation.

Over the phone Wednesday, Perry's mother, Pat, talked about her son.
He was a "health nut,' Pat said, who didn't use drugs but "had
sympathy for people who weren't as strong as he was.' As a police
officer, he saw the excesses of the drug war, said Pat, "and he didn't
think it was fair.'

And it isn't.