HARVARD RARELY PUNISHES STUDENT DRUG USE

Several times a week, Joe and his blockmates stuff towels under their
door, open the windows, turn on a fan, and get stoned.

Occasionally, Joe says, he and his friends will head down to the bank
of the Charles River and light up joints right out in the open. Joe,
a Harvard senior who didn't want his last name used for fear that
potential employers would look unfavorably upon his marijuana use,
says he never worries that his recreational drug use will land him in
legal trouble.

"I don't know anyone who smokes regularly who gives even a fleeting
thought to the possibility of getting caught," Joe said. "If you had
nugget of weed in Dallas, you'd get your ass arrested, but here it
seems like they have bigger fish to fry."

Joe's analysis may not be far off the mark. While an adult selling
even an ounce of marijuana or growing one marijuana plant within
three blocks of a university is subject to a one-year mandatory
minimum sentence under federal law, students at Harvard are more
likely to face a "formal warning" or, at worst, probation for their
marijuana use.

Last year, only one student was arrested by the Harvard University
Police Department (HUPD) for drug law violations, and only two
students went before the Administrative Board, the College's
disciplinary body, for drug-related behavior.

Marijuana use may violate federal law, but at Harvard, it's less
likely to get you in trouble than breaking a window.

Jay Ellison, the assistant dean of Harvard College and secretary of
the Ad Board, says the Ad Board will not punish a student for simply
smoking marijuana. In the two cases last year in which the board did
take action, Ellison said, drugs were only part of the offense and
were not the complete reason for punishment.

"We did not take action simply because drugs or alcohol were
involved, but because of some inappropriate behavior," he said.

Ellison elaborated that while students would not face the Ad Board
for smoking pot or drinking underage, they would face the Board for
violations such as smashing a window, breaking a door, or starting a
fight. In fact, he says, the only reason alcohol and drugs are
mentioned in the Ad Board's reports is because of a government law.

And HUPD goes to great lengths to ensure that students caught smoking
marijuana will face repercussions within the College and not in state
or federal courts.

"If we catch a student smoking a joint, clearly that gives us the
right to lock them up. But the question is, what is the most
appropriate thing to do?" said HUPD spokesman Steven G. Catalano.
"It's most punitive internally, and our officers know that... We want
to make sure there's still some accountability there. That's important."

Catalano says that most drug law violations in the area come from
individuals not affiliated with the College who come on campus to
find a place to light up. Enforcement, in sum, is more likely to
target "pit kids" and the homeless than Harvard students.

This discrepancy is not unique to Cambridge, and has a uniquely
racial dimension. Across the country, some policy analysts say, it
seems there are two sets of laws--one that applies to wealthy,
privileged whites, and another that applies to poor, underprivileged blacks.

Allen St. Pierre, a spokesman for the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws, says that blacks are three times as likely
to be arrested over marijuana in the United States, even though
actual use of the drug is just as common, he says, in wealthier white
demographics like Cambridge.

While blacks comprise around 15 percent of the U.S. population and 15
percent of drug users, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration's Household Survey on Drug Use, they
account for 36.8 percent of drug arrests.

In poor minority areas, St. Pierre says, individuals are forced to
deal and smoke drugs in public spaces. But Harvard students have dorm
rooms--and the notorious Science Center roof--where they seem to be
able to smoke weed with impunity.

A freshman living in Pennypacker, who asked that his name not be used
because he does not want his marijuana use to be widely known, says
his proctor caught his next-door neighbors smoking pot in their room,
but there seemed to have been no disciplinary consequences.

"They still smoke up in their room," he said. "So it must not have
been that big of a deal."

The freshman joked that the only time he worries about being caught
himself is when he is "paranoid from getting high."

Jim von der Heydt, the senior tutor in Winthrop House, says he "very
rarely" has to deal with marijuana smoking in the House.

But interviews with students, and information provided by University
Health Services (UHS), suggest that marijuana use is anything but
rare at Harvard.

A 2004 National College Health Assessment Survey run by UHS found
that 28.7 percent of a random sampling of Harvard students had tried
marijuana, said Ryan Travia, director of the Office of Alcohol and
Other Drug Services at UHS.

When von der Heydt does bust smokers, he says, the actions he takes
are remedial rather than punitive.

"Nothing the College does is conceived of as 'punitive'," he wrote in
an e-mail. "If a student's illicit behavior has impinged on her
neighbors it needs to stop (though this can apply also to licit
behavior, like a Dance Dance Revolution marathon over neighbor's objections)."

The House's response, he says, could involve referral to a clinician,
a conversation between the student and House Masters, a formal House
warning, or some combination of the three.

The Ad Board has record of only two "Inappropriate Behavior, Drugs"
proceedings in 2004, both of which resulted in probation, according
to the Board's published statistics. In comparison, the Board took
disciplinary action in 20 alcohol-related cases last year.

And during the 2004-2005 school year, HUPD reported eight times as
many violations of alcohol laws than drug laws.

A National Issue

St. Pierre says this type of treatment reflects national disparities
in drug law enforcement, adding that enrollment at private colleges
like Harvard amounts to a four-year reprieve from federal and state
marijuana laws.

In university towns like Cambridge, arrests and convictions for
marijuana use and distribution tend to be much lower per capita then
almost anywhere else in the country, he says, as private colleges are
often given leeway to deal with marijuana issues internally.

"Schools generally are much more tolerant about marijuana use," St.
Pierre says. "A place like Cambridge represents a situation where
there's a decidedly low per capita arrest rate."

And while experts say that drug convictions, particularly at an early
age, can seriously hinder efforts to advance in education or in a
career, Harvard students are at a much lower risk of facing such
long-term consequences.

"Even if you don't spend one day in prison, a conviction on a drug
charge is the equivalent to a life-long sentence," wrote Scarlett
Swerdlow, the executive director of drug law reform group Students
for Sensible Drug Policy, in an e-mail. "Youth can forget an
education [with] a conviction on a drug charge--no matter the nature
or number of the offense. You could have made a mistake twenty years
ago, but are ready to turn your life around, only to find that the
national government and even a handful of state governments won't
grant you access to education through a federal financial aid ban
found in the Higher Education Act."

St. Pierre also highlighted the difference in treatment of offenses
at private colleges and state schools.

"Private schools give a greater deference to students and trying to
get them through their education in the best possible way," he said.
"State colleges are much more deferential to the state because they
are an organ of the state."

But Catalano disagrees with this assessment.

"Any decision that HUPD makes has nothing to do with getting kids
through college but with what is the most appropriate way to address
the problem," he said.

At the University of Massachusetts, where St. Pierre went to school,
the local and state police, rather than private campus police, are
the ones called in to deal with offenses, he said, which can mean
much more serious consequences.

"I think the statistics bear out that the traditionally
under-represented and -served--including youth--bear the brunt of the
Drug War," Swerdlow wrote. "Not only in terms of the time they spend
behind bars--anywhere from one to five to ten to twenty to fifty
years--but the life-long consequences that come with a conviction on
a marijuana charge."

But It Can Happen

Drug arrests are so rare at Harvard, they quickly rise to the top of
the student rumor mill, and the front pages of campus media.

In November 2004, a Harvard undergraduate was charged with possession
of drugs with intent to distribute. Prompted by complaints that the
smell of marijuana was permeating the hallway on the 12th floor of
Mather Tower, police arrived at the room of Robert C. Schaffer '05 on
the evening of March 17, 2004, Catalano told The Crimson last year.

Once the officers traced the smell to Schaffer's room, he allowed
police to enter and opened his desk drawer to hand them what appeared
to be a bag of marijuana, according to the incident report filed by
HUPD Officer Thomas F. Karns Jr., as reported by The Crimson.

After searching the room, HUPD confiscated 45 clear plastic bags
containing herb-like substances which the report described as
marijuana and psilocybin, a blue purse holding "an off-white waxy
substance that was in flakes and a solid yellow chunk of an unknown
substance," a pipe, a 200-gram weight and scale, a large black
hunting knife, and a small box of rolling papers.

The case is yet to be resolved.

But even criminal charges don't intimidate some Harvard students. Joe
said he thinks that even if he were to be arrested, he would easily
be able to get out of it by having his parents hire good lawyers and
by using a bit of his own legal savvy.

"All it takes is a modicum of intelligence [to defend ourselves]," he
said. "We have the Fourth Amendment and strict evidentiary requirements."