Confusion Reigns in Ongoing Drug Investigation, Punishment
by Leah Krauss
American Word Staff Writer

The February high profile drug bust indicated refocused attention on campus drug use. Since then, no one has been able to agree on how to characterize the university's involvement, but many students involved think the administration is mishandling the issue.

"It's sketchy," said one such source, Rex*, who is familiar with the investigation. "[Officials] are using the bust as an excuse to give harsher punishments for drugs."

He added that the university is now willing to charge students with violations on less evidence when it comes to drugs.

"Recently, an RA smelled pot from outside the room and the kid got busted for possession," he said.

Rex is not the only one starting to question the university's judicial policies. When Sylvester*, a student heavily involved in the drug scene, heard the university was denying an intensification of its drug policy, he said, "That is definitely not true. Certainly not."

Before the bust, Sylvester said, people only got caught when they were out in the hall, doing something stupid.

Sally*, a source close to the Conduct Council, said, "Compared to [last] year, the cases are more serious and so are the sanctions."

"When I was a freshman, if you were caught in a dorm room with alcohol, you usually got around 10 to 15 hours of community service," she added. "Now, if you are caught with a candle, you automatically get 30 or more hours."

BUST STARTS WITH ONE INFORMANT, ENSUING INVESTIGATION FAR-REACHING, INTIMIDATING TO STUDENTS

According to several sources, there is currently a far-reaching drug investigation on campus. It began when one student was caught dealing drugs in the residence halls. "Basically they catch this kid with a shit load of pot - a trunk full -loads of money, and stuff," Rex said. Sylvester added that the student was also caught with plastic baggies, a sure sign he was a dealer.

The student started going through the normal channels of discipline. Residential Life and Public Safety evaluate each drug case before deciding whether to involve the D.C. Metro Police Department, according to Residential Life and Housing Director Julie Weber. "Usually we call Metro P.D. and give them a little information about the case, and the department decides if it wants to get involved," she said.

She added that since pressing charges in D.C. falls under the jurisdiction of a U.S. attorney, and not a district attorney, many cases are too small for the police to investigate. "If it's a case of pot residue in a bong, the U.S. attorney doesn't care," she said.

This student appeared before the Conduct Council and "he was given a recommendation," Sally said.

"If the jury finds the respondent responsible the jury then decides a recommendation of sanctions that goes to the Dean of Students, Faith [Leonard], who looks over the case and either agrees with the recommendation or can change it," Sally said.

In this case, the recommendation was not followed. Instead, university officials and the Metro police offered the respondent a plea bargain of sorts - probation in exchange for information about his suppliers.

"So [Leonard] meets with this kid, with his parents, above everyone's head, and offers a deal: he gives up his supplier for not being kicked out," Rex said. "He agrees, and starts squealing."

Once the new information generated "sufficient interest" from the Metro police department, investigators got involved, Vice President of Student Services Gail Hanson said.

"They called the shots...they were going to come in," Hanson said. "They thought they had sufficient information to obtain search warrants."

According to several students, this was not the case. The student who had been caught with the trunk became what one dorm resident called "the police's on-call weasel," who provided the police with the information needed for warrants.

After the student had developed a relationship with the students who were eventually charged, he brought an undercover officer along a couple of times to clinch the case.

The investigation was kept quiet, even in the administration, until the bust, Hanson and Weber said. "As few people as possible know," Hanson said, referring to the February bust. "The police decide who needs to know when an operation is under cover."

She denied knowing about a continuing investigation, though she said one could be going on without her knowledge.

"The fewer people who know, the better," Hanson said.

Weber revealed that Public Safety was not involved in the investigation until the night of the bust.

However, Rex scoffed at Weber's suggestion that the Metro police were particularly interested in this case at the outset, calling the police department's eventual involvement "grudging." Instead, he said, the university coaxed outside involvement.

"[Leonard] and [Weber] went over everyone's head with this one," Rex said. "Like, above the [Resident Directors] and the Judicial Office. They had no idea."

Since that time, almost everyone on campus involved in the drug scene heard rumors identifying the "narc."

"The kid is home now," Sylvester said. "He had to withdraw. He was a smart kid, too."

PUBLIC SAFETY TURNS UP THE HEAT ON DRUG OFFENDERS

Since the bust, Public Safety has been the main force behind the investigation -not the Metro Police, according to several sources.

Hanson, Weber, and Public Safety Director Colleen Carson refused to comment on whether the Metro Police were still involved on campus, because the students' cases were still pending, and the investigation still ongoing.

The denials and "no comments" were calculated responses, Rex said, because officials want to heighten the paranoia already prevailing among campus drug users and dealers.

"Kids are spooked because of the arrests," Rex said. "They figure it'll be easier [to cooperate]."

Sylvester, for one, is clearly spooked. "Have you seen all the extra Public Safety officers milling around on campus?" he said. "What are they doing? Terrorism? There's no point in cracking down on your school - this isn't a ghetto," he said.

Officers also seem to be armed with extensive information - something that scares students like Sylvester even more. "It's like, how [does Public Safety] know that all of a sudden?" he said.

"Everyone has heard what public safety has done" in regards to the drug bust, Sylvester said. "But no one knows what their plan is."

"[Officers are] just [saying],'I heard this and that,'" Rex said, indicating that there was little other evidence on which to base an interrogation.

Some students have cooperated with the officers, for several different reasons. Sources familiar with the incidents cited unwillingness to get mired in a legal battle, ignorance of their rights, or fear as reasons Public Safety has made headway.

OFFICIALS DISAGREE, CONTRADICT THEMSELVES IN EXPLAINING ENFORCEMENT OF UNIVERSITY DRUG POLICY

The official university line is clearly that there has been no change in the working policy, and that there is no special crackdown on drugs.

Hanson maintained that the university is not all of a sudden paying more attention to the issue. "I think your assumption is wrong," Hanson said. "We have always paid a lot of attention to the problem."

The director of Judicial Affairs and Mediation Services, Katsura Kurita, echoed, "We are always diligent in enforcing the Student Conduct Code." Kurita would not comment on whether drug offenses now carry stiffer punishments, but said that students were not being disciplined based on less evidence than before the bust.

Resident Assistants were not given any special instructions about policing drug use on campus, even after the bust, one RA agreed. His impression is that the official game plan is to let the Metro police find the dealers, saving ResLife time, money, and effort.

However, Hanson and Weber indicated that the university is prosecuting more drug-related cases lately.

"My sense is that [the number of drug cases] is up," Weber said. "Judicial Affairs keeps the exact numbers, but my general sense is that it is on the rise."

Hanson said, "We're adjudicating a lot more cases overall."

Reading from official Judicial Affairs statistics, she indicated that though there were more cases in the system, last semester's portion of drug-related cases, 14 percent, is smaller than the previous year's 16 percent.

Figures from this semester will not be available until next school year.

Administrators cited a variety of explanations for the apparent increase in drug cases on campus. Hanson and Weber both said they believed the increase in cases was a direct result of an increase in on-campus drug use.

"Things like this go in cycles," Weber said. "Teen smoking was way down; now it's up. Drinking was down; now it's up. Drug use was down; now it's up."

She added that many of today's students arrive at college with established patterns of substance use. In the "old days," she said, "people hadn't tried [smoking, drinking, or drugs] before college, so it was a time of experimentation."

Officials in Public Safety have also noticed a spike in the number of drug cases. "We are certainly directing a lot of time to [policing drug use]," Carson said in a telephone interview.

Carson agreed this was more time than had previously been dedicated to the issue, though she cited "a combination of factors" as responsible for the increase.

"The ResLife staff has been doing a great job of being more aware and contacting us, and we have developed a closer relationship [over the last several years] with the Metropolitan Police Department to help us eradicate the problem," Carson said.

ADMINISTRATORS OFFER VARYING VERSIONS OF POLICY GOALS

None of the university officials expected to remove all drugs from campus. "I'm not naove...no college is never going to have no drugs," Weber said.

Therefore, barring a completely dry campus, Hanson said the university's goal is "for students to be healthy."

"Anything that threatens or puts young people at risk puts people in situations where they have to make choices with severe negative consequences," she said. "We want to educate people to avoid these situations."

Weber interpreted the goal of the university's drug policy in terms of retribution, saying, "We want to hold people accountable with consequences serious enough to make them think twice."

"For some people, this is enough of a deterrent," she said. "For some, it isn't."

*Names have been changed.