Pubdate: Thu, 05 Oct 2006
Source: Ithacan, The (NY Edu)
Copyright: 2006 Ithaca College.
Contact:  http://www.ithaca.edu/rhp/ithacan/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1759
Author: Nathaniel Weixel, Staff Writer

PUBLIC SAFETY SHOWS OFF CONTRABAND COLLECTION

When he joined the Office of Public Safety in 1993,  Master Patrol 
Officer Dirk Hightchew said he knew part  of his job would be to 
confiscate beer kegs. He never  expected to confiscate a human skull 
stolen from a  crypt.

Hightchew said he entered a room on a routine marijuana  complaint 
when he saw a human skull sitting in plain  view on the student's 
shelf. He confiscated it and sent  it to the coroner's lab for 
testing. Hightchew said the  results determined because of its age, 
the skull was  stolen from a crypt.

"The student took it and kept it as an artifact,"  Hightchew said. 
"The skull was one of the more bizarre  things I've found."

In order to educate the campus about the contraband he  collects, 
Hightchew put together a display containing  the strangest items he 
has confiscated from students  during his career. The items in the 
display include  drug paraphernalia and illegal weapons.

Hightchew said he uses the display during resident  assistant 
training and for various educational programs  throughout the year.

He said all items in the display were confiscated  because they were 
in plain view in a room that he  entered as a result of a routine 
noise or drug  complaint.

"Students know that if we catch them smoking, they will  only get a 
judicial referral," Hightchew said. "So  they're usually more than 
happy to give us consent [to  search]."

The display is also used in a legal studies class and  in the class 
Peer Advocacy: Alcohol, Drugs and the  College Student, taught by 
Priscilla Quirk, the  college's Coordinator of Health Promotion and 
Substance  Abuse Prevention.

"The display is an incredible visual of what people  will go through 
to use their drug of choice," Quirk  said. "It lets students see how 
people's lives are so  wrapped up in drug use that they don't 
function in  other areas of their life."

Hightchew said he doesn't always confiscate weird  items. Normally, 
he finds and takes glass marijuana  pipes, water bongs - including 
hand-signed Tommy Chong  bongs - and beer kegs. He often finds stolen 
college  property, usually banquet tables used for drinking  games.

A number of years ago, Hightchew said several students  took the 
12-foot Ithaca College emblem that was  displayed on a wall in 
Emerson Suites. He said the  students made it all the way to the 
Towers before the  Student Auxiliary Safety Patrol stopped them.

"Everything's a trophy if it has the college name or  logo on it," he said.

Hightchew said one of his oddest experiences occurred  during his 
first year on the job. He said when he  arrived at a dorm to 
investigate a complaint of  marijuana odor, he not only found 
students smoking, but  he also found the mask for the college's 
Bomber mascot, an item that had been missing for years.

"I had no idea what it was," Hightchew said. "The kids  didn't know 
how it got into their room, either."

Investigator Tom Dunn, who helps Hightchew with the  display, said 
Public Safety has the right to take  illegal items like weapons and 
drug paraphernalia,  whether or not the students hand over the property.

"If we find the item on a student or in the student's  possession 
during a search, we will take it," Dunn  said.

Dunn said some of the confiscated weapons, including a  blackjack 
club, a throwing star and a pair of brass  knuckles with a blade are 
illegal to possess.

Among the drug paraphernalia Hightchew has seized are  two blow 
tubes. A blow tube is a hollow container that  is stuffed with fabric 
softener. After inhaling  marijuana smoke, a person exhales into the 
tube, using  the fabric softener to absorb the odor, Hightchew said. 
"It usually doesn't work," he said.

Hightchew said it's surprising what students will use  to get high. 
For example, in the collection, there is a  gas mask with a plastic 
bong attached to the bottom of  it.

Dunn said one of the more unusual items is a blue  highlighter with a 
small marijuana pipe hidden in it.

Hightchew said Public Safety subscribes to the magazine  High Times 
in order to keep current with "what students  are using to smoke these days."

Other objects include a bong made from a Pyrex glass  and a rubber 
stopper stolen from the Center for Natural  Sciences, an "Instabong" 
kit and a hospital oxygen mask  hooked up to an electric fan.

Dunn said the fan was converted into a marijuana pipe  and blows the 
smoke through a connecting plastic tube  into the mask.

"They look interesting," Dunn said. "But I doubt their  true effectiveness."
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