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  Students To Protest Souder's Drug Policy
Posted by FoM on February 23, 2002 at 08:30:04 PT
By Sandra Hong of The News-Sentinel 
Source: News-Sentinel 

justice A national student group that has harshly criticized U.S. Rep. Mark Souder's drug policy for college students receiving federal aid plans to protest his "rabid approach to the war on drugs."

Members of the group will be in Fort Wayne on Saturday when Souder is scheduled to speak at a "Paying for College" workshop, sponsored by the Sallie Mae Fund at the University of Saint Francis.

Adam Eidinger of Students for Sensible Drug Policy said members from the Washington, D.C., office and area chapters at Earlham College in Richmond and Ohio University will attend the event to get long-awaited answers from the Republican congressman about legislation he authored.

Under the Higher Education Act of 1998, federal aid for college students caught using or selling illegal drugs would be suspended for a year to permanently, depending on the offense.

In 2000, when asked on their federal student aid application if they had ever been convicted of a drug crime, more than 200,000 students - 13 percent of applicants - left the question blank.

Souder's office said the controversy stems from misinterpretation of the law during the Clinton administration and that the congressman is working to amend the law's wording.

"They interpreted it as a reach-back policy," whereby students were denied federal aid on grounds of a drug record, said Mark Wickersham, Souder's district director.

Wickersham said the law was intended to apply to students receiving aid at the time of their offense, not to discourage applicants.

"We feel good about subsidizing students' education, but we're not interested in subsidizing their drug habits," he said.

Students for Sensible Drug Policy doubts Souder's efforts are in earnest, Eidinger said.

"It wasn't up until six or seven months ago that Souder began his supposed efforts to amend the law. . . . If Souder was prepared to do that, a new bill would have been done" long ago, he said.

Even members of the Department of Education have said they read the law to mean anyone with a past conviction, which would have affected about 43,000 students in 2000. When the department processed the 200,000 applications with the blank drug entry, Souder met with officials to discuss his concerns.

The student group says the 1998 act affects a disproportionate number of low-income and minority students wanting to go to college. Instead of encouraging those students to go to school as "a way of improving a person's life," Eid- inger said, Souder's law "sends the wrong message to students."

The group has asked to speak with Souder many times but he has refused, Eidinger said.

For more info:
http://www.ssdp.org
http://www.raiseyourvoice.com

About the workshop:

What: Paying for College
When: 10 a.m. Saturday
Phone: 1-877-840-8224
Where: University of Saint Francis
Achatz Building, Gunderson Auditorium
Register: http://www.wiredscholar.com
Sallie Mae Fund: http://www.salliemae.com

Newshawk: irok247
Source: News-Sentinel (IN)
Author: Sandra Hong of The News-Sentinel
Published: February 22, 2002
Copyright: 2002 The News-Sentinel
Contact: nsletters@news-sentinel.com
Website: http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/fortwayne/

Related Articles:

Law Meant To Hold Students Accountable
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11733.shtml

Anti-Drug Law Hurts Some Students
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11647.shtml

Financial Aid Bill Needs Revision
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11396.shtml


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Comment #8 posted by E_Johnson on February 23, 2002 at 22:35:44 PT
We're so lied about it's not funny
My son knows people who smoke weed, and it scares me to death.

Because they've convinced him to advocate campaign finance reform and vote for Nader.

And now he's upset about some white guy named Colin Davies.

I hate that ad SO MUCH!!!!!



[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #7 posted by E_Johnson on February 23, 2002 at 22:32:09 PT
But aren't we supposed to be the immoral ones?
Which is why I've always said hypocrisy and greed and the two core values of modern America

All the ranting we do around here about basic moral values, hmmm we don't really sound like the pack of morally degenerate potheads we're supposed to be.

Gosh we could ruin the whole reputation of marijuana.

Yes people, marijuana will distort your normal American value system and make you take up a twisted set of values based on honesty, compassion, democracy, freedom and the personal responsibility that goes with it.



[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #6 posted by E_Johnson on February 23, 2002 at 20:18:11 PT
Give Newt credit, cancer was involved!
just look at Newt Gingrich who went for the trophy wife not once but twice!

But how could you blame him? The old wives got cancer, obviously time for a replacement.



[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #5 posted by Sam Adams on February 23, 2002 at 13:06:53 PT
It isn't just journalism, EJ......
Speaking from over a decade of experience, the entire business world runs on alcohol as well.

Once you advance into a middle-management or higher role in a company or corporation, your career will suffer GREATLY if you cannot participate in the booze-fueled after-work culture. This is even more pronounced in the financial industry, which is still a "boys club" type atmosphere.

But, of course, of any career path in the U.S., there is one that stands tall above all others for drinking......POLITICS. And probably adultery and drug use are the most common in politics as well. Just read any expose-type book on a politician, they're all drunken carousers and intern-f*ckers. Republicans in politics as well as business tend to dump their wives for a trophy wife more than others - just look at Newt Gingrich who went for the trophy wife not once but twice!

Which is why I've always said hypocrisy and greed and the two core values of modern America.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #4 posted by i420 on February 23, 2002 at 11:54:47 PT
Oust Souder
I said it b4 and now i said it again...
OUST SOUDER

.. and i don't care how you do it.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #3 posted by E_Johnson on February 23, 2002 at 10:03:25 PT
The American news media live on booze
If only the media would actually cover the truth about drug-abuse in this country, there would be a lot more respect for the WOSD.

If you want to learn the answer to this question, enroll in journalism school.

My very first field trip in freshman newswriting was to the SF Chronicle, but to meet the great columnists and writers of the Chronicle, we had to go to Jerry and Johnny's taven across the street, where we saw the great names in local journalism slumped over the bar dead drunk at 3pm.

Now um how many college freshman are of legal age to be in a bar? Didn't matter! It's journalism, where everyone is seen as needing a drink.

This was not an anomaly, for when I worked on the J-dept's newspaper, I saw that the professors always brought in beer and wine to help us finish our work. Ahem, I meant that sarcastically, because the working evening always ended up with drunken 18 year old kids barfing into the wastebaskets.

But to the J-professors this was a tender journalistic coming of age story, not a sign of a liver being threatened with alcohol toxicity.

And during the Olympic coverage, Bob Costas was comiserating with a reporter in Utah about the ungodly disaster that occurs when journalists can't order double shots at the bar.

In Utah it's illegal to order a double of anything alcoholic.

Journalists can't handle the truth about their own drug problems, so why should they be honest about anyone else's?

We have a bunch of drunks waging war on a bunch of potheads, that's the way it is.



[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #2 posted by p4me on February 23, 2002 at 09:34:26 PT
alcohol
There they go leaving out alcohol. It is illegal for people under 21 to consume alcohol. It just shows that the whole drug-abuse program is whacky. The Cnews readers that call it the War on Some Drugs are saying the same thing. If only the media would actually cover the truth about drug-abuse in this country, there would be a lot more respect for the WOSD.

That respect will never come until the bastards that say marijuana has no medicinal value are gone or are forced to change their mind. Hutchinson will surely have enough sense not to make the statement that MJ has no medical value like he did in San Francisco when he was publicly called a liar.

VAAI. When in doubt votem out.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #1 posted by E_Johnson on February 23, 2002 at 09:29:40 PT
That's because they have "values"
The group has asked to speak with Souder many times but he has refused, Eidinger said.

It never ceases to amaze me how these rabid anti-drug crusaders continuually and repeatedly violate the most fundamental basic values that are supposed to underlie our free and democratic society in America.

Refusing to meet with representatives of a group directly affected by a bill that he wrote -- If Joyce Nalepka is out there reading this, if any of these people on her side are reading this

HOW DO YOU ANSWER FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF BASIC DEMOCRATIC VALUES AS A RESULT OF YOUR CRUSADE?

Don't you want your kids to grow up in a country where the democratic value system is rooted in an absolute faith as to its goodness and an absolute commitment to its expression in daily life?

Or do you want your kids to grow up in a jaded and corrupted country where people come to expect that their elected representatives will not respond to them unless they have big money at their disposal, like Enron?



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