STUDENTS GRILL SOUDER ON DRUG POLICY HE WROTE

U.S. Rep. Mark Souder briefly argued Saturday with students who approached
him outside the University of St. Francis, protesting a drug policy he drafted.

Souder, R-4th, appeared at a Sallie Mae Fund financial aid seminar and left
Gunderson Auditorium quickly as Shawn Heller, national director of Students
for Sensible Drug Policy, stood up to ask him about the 1998 Higher
Education Act. Heller and four other members from the group followed Souder
outside, asking him about provisions in the act which can cut financial aid
eligibility for 12 months for a first conviction of drug possession, two
years for a second and indefinitely for a third conviction.

"If you use drugs, you lose your loan," Souder said, stopping on his way to
his car to talk to the students, who were from Chicago, Washington, D.C.,
and Richmond, Ind.

The act took effect for the 2000-2001 school term. Heller, 22, said the law
is flawed because it punishes students of poor and working class backgrounds.

Souder told Heller and the other students that more than 400 members of
Congress voted for the bill.

An amendment regarding the drug policy is under way to help interpret the
law, he said.

"No one who's ever committed a drug crime in their life should be denied a
loan," Souder said heatedly while holding his open hand close to Heller's
face. Souder faces former Fort Wayne Mayor Paul Helmke for the Republican
nomination for the 3rd District seat May 7.

Nearly 7,000 of the 9 million students who sought federal aid last year
were ineligible for part or all of financial support because of recent
drug-related convictions, according to the Education Department's Office of
Student Financial Assistance Programs. Matt Atwood, 22, a student at Loyola
University in Chicago, said the law is an injustice and constitutes double
jeopardy. "We don't believe denying people an education will solve drug
problems."