2008 Woodie Awards
Marijuana use common in dorms
Students smoke pot while confined by bad weather
Daliah Singer
Issue date: 3/7/07 Section: News
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Since the start of the winter quarter, Campus Safety has investigated 17 drug-related incidents in the dorms, or about two per week.
Of the 17, 13 have occurred in freshman dorms. The information was compiled from the weekly Crime Report that is published in the Clarion.
Are drugs, specifically marijuana, more prevalent on campus these days?
Or, are students simply getting caught more often?
Daniel Kast, director of the Office of Citizenship and Community Standards, believes the latter. Students aren't engaging in drug use more, he said, but they are getting caught more often.
Drugs are "harder to isolate, harder to hide," said Kast. Marijuana especially, is "relatively easy to find" due to its "distinctive smell that allows staff to pinpoint it," added Kast.
According to Kast, the increase in drug-related offenses may simply be a matter of weather.
With the numerous heavy snowstorms since Christmas, said Kast, students have been staying inside and on-campus more often.
While it may seem that students are getting caught more frequently, of the overall number of crimes reported to Campus Safety, only "a very low percentage" are drug-related, said Tyrone Mills, associate director of the department.
In Clarion's Crime Report 18 percent of the reported incidents on campus were drug-related since school began in January.
In accordance with the federal government's Clery Act, on-campus police agencies are required to make public cumulative crime statistics from the previous three years every Oct. 1.
According to the 2006 report by Campus Safety, there were 89 drug law disciplinary referrals in 2005, up from 81 in 2004.
But, of the 583 crimes and offenses reported to Campus Safety in 2005, only 96 were drug-related.
Campus Safety sends all of its reports on drug offenses to Citizenship and Community Standards. According to Kast, of the 220 student cases sent to him during fall quarter 2006, only 43 were responsible for drug violations. This was a minor change from fall 2005 when 41 students were sanctioned for drug violations.
Of the 17, 13 have occurred in freshman dorms. The information was compiled from the weekly Crime Report that is published in the Clarion.
Are drugs, specifically marijuana, more prevalent on campus these days?
Or, are students simply getting caught more often?
Daniel Kast, director of the Office of Citizenship and Community Standards, believes the latter. Students aren't engaging in drug use more, he said, but they are getting caught more often.
Drugs are "harder to isolate, harder to hide," said Kast. Marijuana especially, is "relatively easy to find" due to its "distinctive smell that allows staff to pinpoint it," added Kast.
According to Kast, the increase in drug-related offenses may simply be a matter of weather.
With the numerous heavy snowstorms since Christmas, said Kast, students have been staying inside and on-campus more often.
While it may seem that students are getting caught more frequently, of the overall number of crimes reported to Campus Safety, only "a very low percentage" are drug-related, said Tyrone Mills, associate director of the department.
In Clarion's Crime Report 18 percent of the reported incidents on campus were drug-related since school began in January.
In accordance with the federal government's Clery Act, on-campus police agencies are required to make public cumulative crime statistics from the previous three years every Oct. 1.
According to the 2006 report by Campus Safety, there were 89 drug law disciplinary referrals in 2005, up from 81 in 2004.
But, of the 583 crimes and offenses reported to Campus Safety in 2005, only 96 were drug-related.
Campus Safety sends all of its reports on drug offenses to Citizenship and Community Standards. According to Kast, of the 220 student cases sent to him during fall quarter 2006, only 43 were responsible for drug violations. This was a minor change from fall 2005 when 41 students were sanctioned for drug violations.
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