EDUCATION is the key to fighting crime. When the potential gains from criminal activity outweigh the benefit of honest wages, individuals find significant motivation to engage in illegal acts. However, the U.S. government has now chosen to enforce laws that strip federal financial assistance from convicted drug users, thereby encouraging continued drug use after users lose the means to educate themselves. Yale University, among others, has objected to this policy. It now offers financial assistance to students who lose their federal grant due to drug possession. The federal policy is repressive and discriminates against a demographic that is in obvious need of better education.
The law has been in effect since 1998, but only has been enforced since the beginning of the most recent Bush administration. By early March, about 47,000 of the 10.5 million federal aid applicants for the school year faced possible denial of aid because of the law, according to the U.S. Department of Education. According to The Washington Post, Yale Spokesman Tom Conroy explained that their decision to extend supplemental aid "comes from a desire that Yale students not have their education interrupted because they could no longer afford school" ("Yale Confronts Drug Policy," April 9, 2002. The Washington Post).
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Many argue that those who break the law should not be offered access to federal funds for a college education. While this would make additional funds available for law-abiding students, it inadvertently refuses the right of education to a population of students who may need it most. Drug use often is symptomatic of other social pressures that can be ameliorated by a college education. Drug use can seriously threaten students' ability to take advantage of the education provided by the federal tax dollars. However, terminating students' ability to better their lives simply because they were accosted with possession of an illegal narcotic only ensures the further repression of their capacity for productive contributions to society.
Aside from providing an exit from the social circumstances that may have led to drug use in the first place, a student placed in the academic community has closer access to drug rehabilitation, support groups and academic pressure not to abuse such substances irresponsibly. Though it might be construed that peer pressure toward drug use is greater in the college environment, once a student has received a degree and finds a place in the workforce, this coercion is alleviated. Instead, the student has gone from being a substance abuser from an at-risk background to an educated contributor to society.
Universities should be encouraged to attempt measures similar to Yale University's and the three other institutions that are covering the withdrawn funds, which were taken from those convicted of drug possession. Though public universities and colleges will have difficulty finding non-general revenue with which such programs might be funded, the benefits of student retention and hope of increased social equity should validate exploration into possible independent financial assistance efforts as compensation.
Drug use is a national problem and should be combated. However, these efforts must not come at the cost of other efforts to improve the lives of those who abuse illegal substances. Revoking federal dollars for education does not create any incentive for individuals to restrict their use. The negative reinforcement of restricting students' capacity to invest in their education could conceivably promote a negative result, that of increased drug experimentation, or worse, increased involvement in the sale of narcotics.
Thomas Jefferson believed that education was the key to a more healthy and active democratic environment, while guarding against the tyranny of government. Yet the current policy of enforcement is attempting to limit access to this great equalizer. The federal government's policy of discrimination will only injure the diversity of our schools and repress avenues to reduce illegal drug dependence. Schools must follow Yale's lead and send a message to those who support such measures. Just as forcing drug users out of colleges is no way to promote decreased drug use, getting caught with a dime bag is hardly grounds for the government's denying users of a higher education.
(Preston Lloyd's column appears Thursday in the Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at plloyd@cavalierdaily.com.)
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