DURING the 2000 presidential campaign, George W. Bush was asked whether he had ever tried cocaine. His answer was that he hadn't used drugs for 25 years. I take that as a "Yes." That same year, Lincoln Chafee was running for the U.S. Senate from Rhode Island and was asked the same question. He gave a more forthright response, admitting that he had sniffed coke while a student at Brown University. Possession of cocaine, a felony, did not interfere with either politician's Ivy League education. Nor did it stop them from seeking and attaining high public office. Today, taxpayers cover both men's salaries and health-care costs, and will eventually provide their government pensions. All, apparently, is forgiven. [continues 615 words]
During the 2000 presidential campaign, George W. Bush was asked whether he had ever tried cocaine. His answer was that he hadn't used drugs for 25 years. I take that as a "Yes." That same year, Lincoln Chafee was running for the U.S. Senate from Rhode Island and was asked the same question. He gave a more forthright response, admitting that he had sniffed coke while a student at Brown University. Possession of cocaine, a felony, did not interfere with either politician's Ivy League education. Nor did it stop them from seeking and attaining high public office. Today, taxpayers cover both men's salaries and health-care costs, and will eventually provide their government pensions. All, apparently, is forgiven. [continues 617 words]
The August 30 editorial, "New law provokes toke," levies the charge of moral error against proponents of a city ordinance that would change the way first-time marijuana offenders are handled by both the Police Department and the justice system. As I see it, the ordinance exists largely outside the moral realm. This ordinance is about saving law enforcement and the courts and, thusly, the taxpayers (e.g. students, residents, citizens, all of us), money. Simultaneously, the law enforcement community will be able to focus limited resources on investigating and prosecuting more serious crimes that take place in our fair town such as rape, domestic violence, and theft to name a few. [continues 802 words]
Provision Rescinding Financial Packages Criticized for Affecting Only Non-Affluent One graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, the other from Princeton University. Both used drugs including marijuana and hallucinogenic mushrooms. Both were caught. But where these students' paths diverge -- the first lost his financial aid package and was suspended, the second got a slap on the wrist and continued his studies uninterrupted -- demonstrates how a little-known 1998 federal law exacts serious consequences for some students but leaves others unscathed. [continues 1039 words]
WHEN THE HIGHER Education Act was reauthorized in 1998, Rep. Mark Edward Souder -- the Indiana Republican whose favorite pastimes include trying to disembowel the District's gun safety laws -- co-sponsored an amendment that would strip students of federal loans if they were convicted of possessing or selling drugs. Eligibility could be taken away for one year, two years or indefinitely, depending on the type and number of convictions. Since the law went into effect, it reportedly has had an impact on about 160,000 students. [continues 315 words]
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Jill Johnson, 21, paid a $600 fine after she tried to sneak a pipe and marijuana into a concert last summer, but she says she only occasionally smokes the drug and should not be denied college financial aid for doing so. "I think that I deserve to have money and be able to go to school ... I go back home to Elk River, and everybody's doing meth and they're doing coke and all this stuff," she said. "I mean, I've never touched it. I look at them, and I think they have a drug problem." [continues 888 words]
One of the most irrational initiatives in the war on crime was a decision by Congress in the 1990's to cut off some ex-offenders from federal education aid. It's highly unlikely that anyone has been deterred from lawbreaking as a result. But if people who have paid their debts to society and are seeking new starts are denied education aid, they could well be locked out of the new economy and sent right back through the revolving door into prison. [continues 258 words]
It Would Ease Curbs On Drug-Crime Convictions In some ways, Rotasha Snipes' felony drug convictions are long behind her. She has done her 55 days in jail. She is serving probation. And this summer, Snipes, 26, of Burlington, said she enrolled in a prerequisite math course for Alamance Community College's medical-lab technology program. She has worked one fast-food-restaurant job after another, and hopes that school will lead to a better job - one that starts at $13 an hour. [continues 810 words]
Panel Is Expected To Advance The Repeal Of A Law Preventing Drug Offenders From Borrowing James Johnson's three convictions for possession of crack cocaine and marijuana disqualify him for a taxpayer-backed student loan under federal law. But Johnson, 27, insists his drug days are behind him and he desperately needs a loan to pay for his education at the community college near his home in Ruffin, N.C. His dream now is to be a filmmaker. "It's not fair," he said. "Some of us are honestly trying to get our lives together, and we need financial help. Past is past. You should be able to put your past behind you and move on." [continues 290 words]
Critics Of A Rule Used To Ban Financial Aid To Students With Drug Convictions Say It Punishes Only Those Who Want To Improve Their Lives. LECANTO - If a college student is convicted of drunken driving or assault, his eligibility for financial aid is not affected. But if he's caught smoking a joint, a little-known provision of the Higher Education Act allows the government to deny financial aid. More than 160,000 students have been refused aid since the provision was enacted in 2000, according to a coalition of groups working to repeal it. [continues 823 words]
After Prison Boom, A Focus On Hurdles Faced By Ex-Cons Housing, Work -- Even An ID -- Can Be Hard To Attain; A Bill Would Smooth Path Ms. Owens's Firefighting Hopes In the kitchen of an Applebee's restaurant in Queens, N.Y., Jacqueline Smith has been a model hire. In less than two years working as a cook, she got a promotion to supervisor, doubled her salary and won the award for employee of the year. Her success hasn't come easily. The dark-haired 38-year-old is an ex-convict who served more than nine years for transporting more than half a pound of crack cocaine from New York to Washington. Since being released in July 2003, she has struggled with basic necessities such as finding affordable housing and getting a valid state ID card. [continues 1806 words]
They say the mind is a terrible thing to waste, yet 165,000 students to date have not been given the opportunity to put theirs to use. While over 200 religious, civil rights, rehabilitation and criminal justice organizations and 120 Student Government Associations (SGA) across the nation are fighting to protect students rights to financial aid, the University has remained neutral. Over 30 years ago President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law a provision of the Higher Education Act to open the door to a college education for students who had been denied these opportunities in the past. However, a new provision put into effect in 2000 has reversed Johnson's provision, denying students who have been convicted of a drug offense the ability to receive financial aid. Students at other universities are working in conjunction with the Coalition for Higher Education Act Reform (CHEAR) and every major education association. [continues 1095 words]
The provision in the Higher Education Act penalizes students with drug offenses. Some students are lobbying Congress to remove a provision in the Higher Education Act that punishes students with drug convictions. The provision, added in 1998, denies federal financial aid to students with any drug-related offense, including misdemeanor possession of marijuana. A U.S. House bill introduced in March would remove the drug-penalty provision from the Higher Education Act. Student groups around the country, including Students for Sensible Drug Policy, are lobbying to get legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate that would remove the provision. [continues 589 words]
In 1998, Rep. Mark Souder, R-Indiana, authored an amendment to the Higher Education Act delaying or denying financial aid eligibility to any individual convicted of a state or federal drug offense. As it stands, the amendment enforces a policy in which drug possession convictions result in ineligibility for one year for a first offense, two years for second offense and indefinitely for a third; drug sale convictions warrant ineligibility for two years on a first offense and indefinitely for a second offense. Ineligibility applies to all forms of federal financial aid, including grants, student loans and work-study. [continues 452 words]
WALNUT HILLS - Kathleen Bower said people thought she was nuts when she told them she wanted to buy two dilapidated Cincinnati Public Schools warehouses and renovate them into a charter school for students struggling with substance abuse. But Bower, a public school administrator who struggled with substance abuse when she was in college, raised $25,000, bought the buildings, renovated the smaller one and opened Dohn Community High School in 2001. The school housed 50 students, many who were kicked out of other schools for truancy, fighting or drug use. [continues 675 words]
To the Editor: Marcia Grann O'Brien's editorial "What's the price tag on the drug bill?" March 30, 2005 raises a fair question regarding Rep. Joseph Almeida's proposed legislation to reimburse students denied federal financial aid under the Higher Education Act Drug Provision. However there is little to worry about the cost of this important bill. The HEA Drug Provision has cost 160,500 students education and opportunity, yet the amount saved by the government has been minimal. The Coalition for Higher Education Act Reform (CHEAR) estimates it would cost Rhode Island merely $1.2 million per year to provide aid to students impacted by this misguided federal policy, a small amount compared to the proposed Public Higher Education Budget for FY2006 totaling $672 million. [continues 160 words]
If you burn down a building, rob a store or rape someone, are subsequently tried, convicted and sent to jail, upon release the federal government will help you go to college with grants and loans. But if you get caught with drugs, even a small amount of marijuana, forget it. A 1998 amendment to the Higher Education Act passed by Congress in 1968 prohibits federal financial aid. Even Congressman Mark Souder, who introduced the amendment, says it's unfair. The intent, he's said in published reports, was to ban students in college when convicted from getting the aid. But as the law applies, once you've been caught and convicted of drug use or possession, that's the end of any hope for financial relief in the future. You may want to change and improve your life, but unless you can finance that on your own, the government won't help you go to college. [continues 309 words]
Congress is examining whether a past drug conviction should determine a student's financial aid status. A national organization of college students, Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, is the driving force behind the congressional proposal to have the question completely removed from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Question 31 on the FAFSA asks if the applicant has ever been convicted of possessing or selling illegal substances. If the applicant has been convicted, aid can be cut. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., introduced a bill in March to remove the question from the FAFSA. It was added in 1998 by Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., as a part of the Higher Education Act. [continues 523 words]
Our position is: Congress should not penalize a student's first drug-use conviction by denying federal financial aid. Count on young people to sometimes do stupid things. Yet one bad choice shouldn't keep them from attending college. But that's been the unfortunate result of a provision in the Higher Education Act that denies federal college aid to applicants who have been convicted of a drug offense. Since the rule took effect in 2000, it has disqualified more than 160,000 students from receiving federal grants, loans or work assistance. The number is higher when you factor in those who skipped the drug question on financial aid forms, which automatically makes them ineligible for aid. [continues 190 words]
What's The Price Tag On Drug Bill? If you burn down a building, rob a store or rape someone, are subsequently tried, convicted and sent to jail, upon release the federal government will help you go to college with grants and loans. But if you get caught with drugs, even a small amount of marijuana, forget it. A 1998 amendment to the Higher Education Act passed by Congress in 1968 prohibits federal financial aid. Even Congressman Mark Souder, who introduced the amendment, says it's unfair. The intent, he's said in published reports, was to ban students in college when convicted from getting the aid. But as the law applies, once you've been caught and convicted of drug use or possession, that's the end of any hope for financial relief in the future. You may want to change and improve your life, but unless you can finance that on your own, the government won't help you go to college. [continues 309 words]
Thank you for raising awareness of the Higher Education Act's denial of student loans to youth convicted of drug offenses. Anyone born into a wealthy family need not fear the impact of HEA. Instead of empowering at-risk students with a college degree, HEA limits career opportunities and increases the likelihood those affected will resort to crime. Speaking of crime, convicted rapists and murders are still eligible for federal student loans. Most students outgrow their youthful indiscretions involving illicit drugs. An arrest and criminal record, on the other hand, can be life-shattering. [continues 143 words]
Washington- A week ago, Chris Burnside was a University of Toledo senior cut off from federal financial aid because of a 2002 drug conviction - or so he thought. His family made sacrifices, including postponing his father's retirement, so he could go to school. It turns out that some of the sacrifices may not have been necessary. To Burnside's shock - and possibly to the surprise of thousands of others - the law that penalizes drug offenders by denying them college aid has plenty of loopholes, and purposely so. In fact, someone can get busted tomorrow and still get loans or grants for next fall. [continues 757 words]
Background: This is the fourth of four editorials on the Solomon-Souder amendment to the Higher Education Act. The provision denies federal financial aid for a period of time to those convicted of drug possession or distribution. Congress is reauthorizing the act this year and has the opportunity to repeal the law. Previous editorials dealt with inequity in the current law; this one focuses on prevailing attitudes and possible solutions. People don't think the way Congress did in 1998, when students with drug convictions were barred from receiving financial aid. Not even the law's author. [continues 733 words]
Proposal Would End Ban On Aid GREENSBORO -- Proposed changes to a federal financial aid law would allow students who have been convicted on drug-related charges to receive grants and loans that help pay for college. Financial aid experts said the law could also cut delays for financial aid applications filed by those without drug convictions. The Removing Impediments to Students' Education Act would repeal restrictions that have been in place since 2000. Congressman Mel Watt, a Democrat whose district includes parts of High Point and Greensboro, is one of about 50 co-sponsors of the bill repealing the provision. [continues 356 words]
Syndicated columnist Clarence Page's March 8 commentary about Doug Wead's disclosure of President Bush's alleged past use of drugs highlights just how far our country needs to go before we can have straight talk about recovery. Page, contending that Bush's reluctance to make a public avowal of his experience with drugs and alcohol is wrong-headed, ignores the fact that recovery is a personal experience. Telling one's recovery story should remain a personal choice. Addiction and substance abuse still carry significant stigma in our society, despite scientific discoveries that recognize the role that brain chemistry plays in the addictive process. [continues 494 words]
Thank you for raising awareness of the Higher Education Act's denial of student loans to youth convicted of drug offenses ("Time for a drug-free FAFSA," Mar. 16, p. 6.) Anyone born into a wealthy family need not fear the impact of HEA. Instead of empowering at-risk students with a college degree, HEA limits career opportunities and increases the likelihood that those affected will resort to crime. Speaking of crime, convicted rapists and murders are still eligible for federal student loans. [continues 163 words]
The Higher Education Act (HEA) was instituted in 1965 to expand access to colleges and universities. Congress last revised the law in 1998 and this year it is up for review again. It must be improved so it continues to allow access to higher education, especially for low-income and minority students. One of the main purposes of the HEA is to assist students in paying for college, mainly through Pell Grants, which do not have to be repaid, and loans. Originally, grants made up the greater share of government assistance. Today, loans are more common. Congress must address and reverse this trend. [continues 362 words]
Criminalizing popular behavior didn't work during Prohibition, and it doesn't work now. Denying financial aid to students on the basis of drug convictions makes even less sense. People who admit to three drug-possession convictions or two drug-selling convictions, can be made indefinitely ineligible for all federal financial aid - loans, grants, work-study dollars and scholarships. What has this accomplished so far? The United States has the highest incarceration rate of any nation in the world, but we still have a drug problem. Mandatory sentencing for drug offenders filled our prisons, but did nothing to curb drug use. Adding additional penalties for drug users who have been sentenced and paid their penalties is an implicit admission to the failure of the war on drugs. [continues 298 words]
Lawmaker Cites Drugs, Evolution As Key Issues WASHINGTON - Rep. Mark Souder, R-3rd, will join the House Education Committee for the next two years, temporarily giving up a seat on the committee that oversees national parks. Souder, who was a member of the Education Committee for his first six years in office, said he is keen to participate in discussions about the teaching of evolution vs. creationism; the rewrite of a bill that includes a provision he wrote to restrict student loans to people with drug convictions; and legislation that includes provisions that allow federal grants to faith-based organizations. [continues 175 words]
Supreme Court's Reversal Of "Mandatory Minimums" Too Late For Some Shortly before Thanksgiving 1983, a modest drug deal went down in a beauty shop in Harlem. Elaine Bartlett, a 26-year-old mother of four, agreed to carry four ounces of cocaine by train from New York City to Albany. Bartlett was not a drug courier by trade. She worked as a hairdresser and lived in one of Harlem's big public housing projects. A man named Charlie stepped into the back room of the beauty shop one morning and offered her $2,500 for one day's work. When she said yes, she had in mind a huge Thanksgiving feast for her extended family and some new furniture for her tidy little apartment. By the time she sat down to dinner with her family again, 16 years later, it was in a household ruined by years of frustration and neglect, and her children were no longer really hers. [continues 1811 words]
A coalition that wants change in the government's policy on drugs is raising money to give scholarships to students who have lost their federal financial aid for college because of drug convictions. The effort is supported by US Representative Barney Frank, a Newton Democrat, who spoke earlier this month at a fund-raising event in Boston. The event raised about $1,800 for the John W. Perry Fund, which has awarded 14 scholarships over the past two years. Frank has filed legislation to repeal a little-known federal provision that denies federal financial aid to some students who have drug convictions on their records. He and others argue the penalty is unfair because it places additional punishment on students who have already gone through the legal system. They also say it could prevent students from going to college. [continues 184 words]
Scholarships Would Go to Deserving Low-Income Students WHO Eschew Drugs, Alcohol and Tobacco. Gov. Bill Owens on Tuesday proposed a new scholarship program to allow deserving low-income students to get financial help for college. But they have to stay away from drugs, alcohol and tobacco to qualify. Called the Colorado Achievement Scholarship, the proposal will require approval by the state legislature. To qualify, students would have to pass a precollegiate high school curriculum, maintain a 2.5 high school grade-point average and not use drugs, alcohol or tobacco, Owens said. [continues 425 words]
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) joined members of several nonprofit organizations Thursday at the Omni Parker Hotel to discuss a federal provision that denies college students convicted of drug-related offenses federal financial aid. In 1998, Rep. Mark Souder (R-Indiana) introduced legislation adding the drug-related crime provision to the Higher Education Act, which prevents students convicted of drug-related crimes from receiving federal funds such as loans, grants and even work-study programs. Frank has led a national effort to repeal the legislation, which has denied over 157,000 students federal financial aid. [continues 458 words]
Kudos to Students for Sensible Drug Policy for raising awareness of the Higher Educations Act's denial of student loans to youth convicted of drug offenses. Anyone born into a wealthy family need not fear the impact of HEA. Instead of empowering at-risk students with college degree, HEA limits career opportunities and increases the likelihood that those affected will resort to crime. Speaking of crime, convicted rapists and murderers are still eligible for federal student loans. Most students outgrow their youthful indiscretions involving illicit drugs. An arrest and criminal record, on the other hand, can be life shattering. After admitting to smoking pot (but not inhaling), former President Bill Clinton opened himself up on "soft on drugs" criticism. And thousands of Americans have paid the price in the form of shattered lives. More Americans went to prison or jail during the Clinton administration than during any past administration. [continues 110 words]
Students convicted for possession of marijuana or for the sale of a controlled substance are stripped of federal financial aid due to the Drug Provision in the Higher Education Act (HEA). Last year, 755,187 people were arrested for marijuana violations in America, according to an FBI report released Oct. 25. The number of annual marijuana arrests has doubled since 1993. This year's total is the largest in history. "Arresting more Americans for marijuana possession does nothing to prevent drug abuse in our country," said Scarlett Swerdlow, executive director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP). "When students are arrested, they are put at risk of losing financial aid, forcing them away from education and into cycles of crime and failure. Blocking access to education will only worsen our nation's drug problems," she said. [continues 943 words]
No matter what the outcome of the Nov. 2 presidential election will be, the controversial provision in the Higher Education Act, which denies financial aid to students with drug convictions, will be changed in some way. Presidential candidates George W. Bush, John Kerry and Ralph Nader released position statements in opposition to the 1998 provision, which has allowed for the loss of financial aid for more than 157,000 students nationwide. According to Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), a non-partisan group based in Washington D.C. which has campaigned for a repeal of the provision for six years, the candidates' statements are the result of a questionnaire compiled by the New Voters Project (www.newvotersproject.org). [continues 630 words]
City Officials Question Success Of Ongoing Battle With Drugs While Richard Nixon was a central figure to the Vietnam War - one of the most unpopular and divisive conflicts in the history of the United States - another battle he began rivals its reputation. The war on drugs has been a continuous force in American politics and justice for the past 30 years, at a cost of over half a trillion dollars, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency. But as drug-related cases crowd jails around the country and a seemingly endless supply of illegal drugs and drug dealers rush to satisfy the black market, the fight is accumulating a long list of casualties and few victories. [continues 1622 words]
While Richard Nixon was a central figure to the Vietnam War - -- one of the most unpopular and divisive conflicts in the history of the United States -- another battle he began rivals its reputation. The war on drugs has been a continuous force in American politics and justice for the past 30 years, at a cost of over half a trillion dollars, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency. But as drug-related cases crowd jails around the country and a seemingly endless supply of illegal drugs and drug dealers rush to satisfy the black market, the fight is accumulating a long list of casualties and few victories. [continues 1563 words]
Students Lose Their Financial Aid If They Are Convicted of Drug Possession. Like many college students, Richard Boadu, marketing senior, has experimented with drugs. Last summer, Boadu smoked marijuana for the first time since junior high school, but at the time, he didn't know that it could cost him his education. As a current student, Boadu could not afford tuition at OU without the help of Pell Grants, which unlike loans, do not have to be repaid. Boadu was unaware at the time that if police had caught him in possession of marijuana, he could have lost his federal financial aid for one year or more. [continues 623 words]
WASHINGTON - Rep. Mark Souder, R-3rd, hasn't done enough to change the federal government's policy about financial aid for college students who have drug convictions, Democratic congressional candidate Maria Parra said Friday. Parra, who hopes to beat the five-term incumbent, said denying grants or scholarships to people who have been convicted of using or selling drugs does not help people with drug problems. "If anything," she said, "the law perpetuates the cycle of addiction and denies aid to those who need it most." [continues 353 words]
The 108th Congress adjourned yesterday, likely slamming the door on financial aid for as many as 26,967 of the neediest college students this school year. Angel Mateo, 23, a sophomore at UMass-Dartmouth, could have been one of them. Mateo, a Brighton High School dropout, was convicted twice for marijuana possession - in 2000 after partying in Cambridge's JFK Park, and in 2002 after carrying "maybe enough to fill a bowl" in his pocket while boarding a bus in Brighton. [continues 383 words]
The Drive to Legalize Picks Up Never before have so many Americans supported decriminalizing and even legalizing marijuana. Seventy-two percent say that for simple marijuana possession, people should not be incarcerated but fined: the generally accepted definition of "decriminalization." Even more Americans support making marijuana legal for medical purposes. Support for broader legalization ranges between 25 and 42 percent, depending on how one asks the question. Two of every five Americans - according to a 2003 Zogby poll - say "the government should treat marijuana more or less the same way it treats alcohol: It should regulate it, control it, tax it, and only make it illegal for children." [continues 2982 words]
After 30 Years, Undercover Drug Cops May Have Outlived Their Usefulness on Los Angeles Campuses. Student 0350405 seems precisely the kind of student the Los Angeles Police Department was trying to protect when it launched its undercover "School Buy" program 30 years ago to rid Los Angeles Unified School District campuses of drugs. She has good grades and an unblemished disciplinary record and is a star on her school's softball team and a role model in her neighborhood. Or at least she was, until she was arrested last spring for selling marijuana to an LAPD officer posing as a student. Now she's been ordered to spend her senior year in an off-campus program for gangbangers, truants, kids on probation and other troublemakers. [continues 646 words]
America Has Made Great Progress On Race, But Racism Hasn't Vanished When you've witnessed, as I have, the astonishing progress in American race relations over the past half-century, it's easy to feel good about how far our nation has come. It's easy, that is, unless you struggle daily with problems that arise directly from racism or disproportionately affect low-income blacks. That's what Ted Shaw does. Shaw was in town Tuesday and stopped by the Observer. A New York native and Columbia University law school graduate, he's president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. The LDF was founded in 1940 under Thurgood Marshall's leadership to provide legal assistance to poor blacks. Originally part of the NAACP, it has been independent since 1957. [continues 468 words]
In the midst of the soaring rhetoric of last week's Democratic Convention, more than one speaker quoted Abraham Lincoln's first inaugural address, invoking "the better angels of our nature." Well, there is an especially appropriate task awaiting those heavenly creatures -- a long-overdue reform of our disastrous "war on drugs." We should begin by recognizing its costly and inhumane dimensions. Much of the nation, in one way or another, is victimized by this failure -- including, most notably, the innocents, whose exposure to drugs is greater than ever. [continues 574 words]
On Friday, July 22, Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) rescinded his support of "The Second Chance Act" (on the last working day, before the 108th Congress adjourned for August recess), and now the bill must be put on hold until at least September. The delay, according to Ross Wilson of Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), will keep thousands of college students at risk of losing federal financial aid because of a "counterproductive and unfair" drug provision in the federal Higher Education Act. [continues 660 words]
Drugs Have Been an Easy Target for Politicians Wanting to Appear 'Tough on Crime,' Even Though Many Believe the Drug War Has Failed. It's been more than 33 years since President Richard Nixon declared war on illegal drugs and called drug abuse "public enemy number one in the United States." Hundreds of billions of dollars later, with hundreds of thousands of Americans behind bars, we are no closer to Nixon's dream of a drug-free nation than we were in 1971. As with alcohol Prohibition in the 1930s, drug prohibition has brought us far more problems than it has solved. [continues 494 words]
The Drive To Legalize Picks Up Never before have so many Americans supported decriminalizing and even legalizing marijuana. Seventy-two percent say that for simple marijuana possession, people should not be incarcerated but fined: the generally accepted definition of "decriminalization." Even more Americans support making marijuana legal for medical purposes. Support for broader legalization ranges between 25 and 42 percent, depending on how one asks the question. Two of every five Americans-according to a 2003 Zogby poll-say "the government should treat marijuana more or less the same way it treats alcohol: It should regulate it, control it, tax it, and only make it illegal for children." [continues 3007 words]
The Higher Education Act was passed into law over three decades ago by Lyndon Johnson and it authorized federal dollars to be spent on Pell grants, Perkins Loans and Work-Study Programs. Every four years Congress is asked to review the Act and make adjustments as needed. A recent amendment has many students, as well as professors and other academics, questioning the intentions of Congress and their attempts to look tough on drugs. Passed into law during a late night, closed-door session of the House Education & Work Force Committee, the 1998 Higher Education Act drug provision denies federal aid to any student that has been convicted of a drug-related offense. [continues 168 words]
NEW YORK - She was thrown out of her home by age 13, spent her teenage years sleeping on subway trains and rotting piers, and still managed to get her general equivalency diploma. So Laura Melendez figured she had kept her nose pretty clean. Sure, there had been a few arrests for smoking marijuana, but after an entire adolescence spent on the streets, with far more visits by the police than by her parents, what did those offenses really amount to? "It means I'll be denied an education," said Melendez, now 22 and applying to college. [continues 314 words]
