STUDENTS START NEW DEBATE ON DRUG LAWS

Drug Convictions Bar Students From Financial Aid

Some Columbia students are concerned marijuana possession charges
could deny students nationwide the financial aid assistance they need
to stay in college.

Believing U.S. government policy in the current war on drugs is
harmful and misguided, a group of Columbia students is looking to
start a student organization designed to raise awareness of the issues
surrounding drug use and the ways in which drug laws affect
educational opportunities.

A group of more than 15 students is working on setting up a Columbia
chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, a national organization
committed to getting the word out about the harmful effects of current
drug laws. The group is currently working on gathering members and
completing the steps necessary to be officially recognized by the
Student Organization Council. Louis Silverstein, an instructor in the
Liberal Education Department, has agreed to serve as the group's
faculty adviser.

Like the national organization, the founders of Columbia's chapter
hope to educate students about problems inherent in current drug
laws-particularly how the laws affect student and minority
communities. Of chief concern are education funding provisions that
block access to financial aid for students who have run afoul of drug
laws, and working to replace "zero tolerance" and drug testing
policies in high schools and colleges across the country.

"I've heard a lot of stories about people who have been affected by
exorbitant drug laws," said Matt Battaglia, a sophomore animation
major who attended a recent organizational meeting for the chapter.
"This was an opportunity given by the school with some funding, so
it's a chance for us to do something." As part of its overall mission
statement, SSDP says that while it "neither encourages nor condemns
drug use," it is committed to "promoting an open, honest and rational
discussion of alternative solutions to our nation's drug problems."

Emily Fioramonti, an interactive media sophomore who's helping set the
chapter up, agrees.

"Publicity is our main goal right now," Fioramonti said. "With
Columbia being the sort of liberal breeding ground as it is, our goal
is to motivate people to being more aware. SSDP is about reforming
drug policy, but it's also about getting young people into the
political process in general. It's our generation that has to make the
changes happen."

On the national level, the organizers of the Columbia chapter are
focusing much of their effort on laws that hurt access to financial
aid. In 1998, a new law known as the Drug-Free Student Aid Provision
was amended to the Higher Education Act of 1965 by Congress, denying
financial aid to students with drug convictions regardless of the
nature or severity of the charge.

According to Melissa Milam, media director of the SSDP in Washington,
D.C., the amendment ends up harming the very people the law originally
intended to benefit.

"The 1965 Higher Education Act was created to help middle- and
lower-income Americans afford college," Milam said. "In 1998, the
provision was enacted to deny financial aid to students with drug
convictions on their record no matter what the charge was."

"[The 1998 provision] basically set up a system where a first time
conviction for drug possession or distribution can mean a college
student gets no financial aid for a year," Fioramonti said. "A second
conviction means three years with no aid, and the third time means no
aid ever. The basic problem is in looking at what drug addiction
is-it's a disease, and taking away aid from someone with a disease is
unfair."

According to Milam, the U.S. Department of Education estimates that
some 128,000 students have had difficulty receiving financial aid as
of the 2000-2001 school year, the first year questions about a
student's drug convictions appeared on the Free Application for
Federal Student Aid.

For Silverstein, there are benefits for students that go beyond the
narrow focus of simply addressing problems in current drug policy.

"One goal [of this group] would be to model for students that they
have the right in this country to speak out on controversial issues,"
Silverstein said. "There's a fear right out there now that if you
speak out there may be retribution of some sort. I think it's
important to show students that it's incumbent on them to author the
culture of our times, which is one of the mottos of Columbia itself."

For his part, Silverstein doesn't foresee the group running into any
problems in its bid to be recognized as part of SOC due to the nature
of its advocacy, although he himself has run into resistance on campus
in the past.

"Two years ago, when my book [Deep Spirit & Great Heart: Living In Marijuana
Consciousness] came out, and I proposed there be a book reading and
signing," Silverstein said. "However, for the very first time a Columbia
College author was told it couldn't happen. The legal counsel [for the
school] said the book was advocating drug use, and that given that this is a
drug-free school, such an event couldn't happen."

The organizers of the Columbia chapter simply hope to make Columbia a
place where the drug laws can be discussed.

"By gathering as many people together as possible, people will start
to feel comfortable talking about this stuff," Fioramonti said.
"Educating people who might come for one reason and learn something
else can only be good."