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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."