Tuesday, May 6, 2008
College Drug Bust
About 100 people, 75 of which were students, were arrested in an undercover drug sting at San Diego State University today. This investigation was initiated by campus police after a student's fatal overdose a year ago. Officials claim to have confiscated more than $100,000 worth of drugs in "Operation Sudden Fall," including four pounds of cocaine, 50 pounds of marijuana and 350 ecstasy pills. They also took one shotgun, three semiautomatic pistols and $60,000. Among those arrested were students majoring in homeland security and in criminal justice, one even worked under campus police as a student community service officer. In addition to facing criminal charges, the students are also suspended from SDSU and have been evicted from their housing. How could colleges prevent these kind of "mid-level distributors" who sell more than someone might buy for personal use? Should colleges take these extreme measures in order to limit their students' drug use? Was this an appropriate way to handle the situation?
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18 comments:
With narcotics as serious as those, there's not much a college can do but be rash about it. Colleges care about their reputation and something like that can definitely affect the reputation of the college. I feel as though SDSU did the best they could in this situation. There really isn't another alternative.
I think SDSU overreacted. Its just drugs. SDSU needs to realize that drug use at their college is inevitable and nothing they do will end drug use. They should just embrace the drug and alcohol use and work towards educating their students on how to use drugs and alcohol safely. this way they can avoid having to bust unfortunate students like those mentioned in the post, and can also make progress towards improving the overall health and safety of the student body.
I agree with Gen, SDSU was just trying to save their reputation and uphold the law. I think what they did was fair especially because the drugs would probably have been distributed to other students and the drug problem would just continue and get worse. They should also encourage more programs to prevent drug use.
This is an intense situation and a hard one to handle for school officials. I think it was good that this drug bust happened because it sounds like there was quite a large drug ring going. With all the money and drugs that the people found it seems like it was really about time that these people got caught.
Narcotics should be taken very lightly, they are completely harmless and if the student body wants to take part their use the college should turn a blind eye, or better yet, sell them and substantially increase their profits... and with the increased income the college can build/improve facilities for their students. Everyone is happy.
I think that SDSU's reaction to the situation was rational. Although drug use in colleges are inevitable, it is still better to have rash consequences that will prevent many from selling and doing drugs.
Drug use is inevitable and pretty hard to prevent. But if they take no actions to prevent it, it will just get worse and worse. At least with their reaction it shows their disapproval and maybe students will be a little more careful next time.
I also agree with Genevieve. The school had no choice but to do what they did. If a school catches students violating the law they have to punish them. If the school didn't do anything, and people found out that they covered it up, the school would have had a huge PR problem.
Although drug use is inevitable in college I still find the effects of these hard drugs to be really disturbing; maybe this will get students to think twice before buying/selling a bunch of narcotics.
Thats some intense stuff. The school made the right decision since you could probably get kicked out of school for being found with any of these items while at school since they are illegal. I think since it was such a high amount of drugs, they had to make drastic measurements to try and say that this is unacceptable and to show people that if this happens, this will be the consequences.
After catching the students, I agree they had every right to give the proper consequences. Just thinking about next year, I'd hope they'd do the same thing with anyone administering such hardcore and illegal drugs that might end up living right next door to any of us! Would you rather them ignore it?
Well they definantly shouldn't have simply turned their head completely. Perhaps the consequences were a bit much, but I don't think they did anything that they didn't think they had to. They probably felt the punishment was appropriate, and it probably had stated what the consequences would be in a situation like this in their college rules. I'm sure the students knew fully well what the risk was, so I do believe that it was fair in the end.
you are all bloody wrong, except greg (who is thinking along the right lines), narcotics are inevitable and thus might as well be used to the school's advantage. There is absolutely no scientific evidence that shows that any narcotic has any negative effects whatsoever. SDSU should think clearly about what they have done to these hard working students.
I think SDSU's reaction was appropriate, not so much because of the drugs, but because of the guns found. After Columbine and Virginia Tech, I find this much more disturbing than the inevitable drug use that is going to happen in college. It worries me that these students are majoring in fields where the integrity of the law is crucial, but as for the drugs, that doesn't particularly bother me. Although I do think these dealers deserve to be caught if CAMPUS POLICE found them.
"Narcotics should be taken very lightly, they are completely harmless"
Whoa. Pot isn't harmless, but one can make a rational case for it being legal given its toxicity (nil), rates of dependence (low), and other health effects (mild with mild use).
Cocaine and X are another matter entirely. At your age, probably you know some users who also have their act together in other dimensions of life, but few people can pull that off for long before crashing and burning and hurting a lot of people in the process. The school had a fatal overdose, I don't see how the school can turn a blind eye to a party culture that makes hard drugs more readily available to neophytes than they otherwise would be.
PS "Narcotics" usually refers to opiates (Opium, Heroin, Morphine) which are very addictive.
Sucks that this happened right after application season because I am sure there are tons of kids who would have loved to take their spots at school. And yes they should all be arrested, they should all be kicked out of school, and they should all go up on a public pedestal to be laughed at because they deserve it, or at least the ones actually taking part in the illegal actions. Do drugs if you want, but they are illegal in the United States, or at least there are some that are and if you want to keep doing them without punishment then looks like we are not the country for you (try Amsterdam). And for reals, someone died at the school a year ago. Do you really think they should just turn the other way? And to all of you saying they should take it lightly, why aren't you selling drugs and making the big bucks? Ya cause you know it is illegal and don't want to risk the consequences. So before taking a stance like that, have some street cred cause right now you look pretty bad trying to look like you do not think it is a big deal but your not rolling around in Benjamins in the most liberal city in the United States!(my opinion about San Francisco)
This was an appropriate way to solve the drug issue but I also think expulsion would be another likely alternative. These types of criminal charges are serious and SDSU needs to make an example of these drug distributors. By allowing these students to return to SDSU the college would be sending the message that drug distributing isn't very serious and the college will take you anyway. There are numerous individuals who don't deal drugs that would think of going to SDSU is an honor. So kick these drug distributors out and put more righteous kids to take their places.
This is such a waste of the government's money. They spend months on one drug bust like this, and then inflate the number of people arrested to make it sound more important.
Even though drugs are the norm in college and older environments, I felt this big bust was very effective and sent a big message. This topic has been very hot and can hopefully scare people in the dangers of getting caught doing drugs.
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