This past Tuesday, the majority of Massachusetts voters cast their ballots and voted yes on Question 2, an initiative that decriminalizes the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana.
University officials said they will not make any immediate changes to the Code of Student Conduct following the passing of this initiative. The state voted, and Northeastern should support the thousands of voters who passed the measure and lessen the severity of its current drug policy.
The Code of Student Conduct states that on a first violation of the drug policy, a student is deferred suspension from the university as long as he or she pays a $200 fine and attend a required drug education program. Upon a second violation, the student is suspended from the university and receives a permanent notation on his or her transcript. He or she must also complete a drug counseling program off campus.
If this proposal passes by the Massachusetts legislature, someone caught by a Boston Police Department officer with up to one ounce of marijuana would get a fine of $100, and those younger than 18 could face a $1,000 increase in the fine and be required to complete a drug education program and community service.
Most importantly, these offenses would not be listed in the Criminal Record Information System (CORI) database.
When a name is in the CORI database, a red flag goes up whenever that person is looking for a job, financial loans, clearances and more. This law will ultimately help students, and the university should take a step in that direction to keep students’ well-being one of its top priorities.
If caught with less than one ounce of pot outside of the university, you would pay the fine and head your own way. At Northeastern, though, a student would still have to go through the Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution and possibly have their mistake labeled on their transcript – but isn’t Northeastern a university aimed at preparing its students for real life?
With rigorous classes and a successful co-op program, Northeastern teaches its students to be professional and good citizens. The university should continue to help students by adopting similar policies to those voted on by the people.
With other issues like underage drinking, harassment and vandalism, the law and the Code of Student Conduct seem to be pretty similar. To say that they are different in the drug policy case simply seems like an easy and lazy way to dodge the entire issue.
Currently the state wastes about $30 million per year in law enforcement resources for low-level marijuana possession arrests, according to a recent report by Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron. Massachusetts citizens acknowledged there are larger issues out there that law enforcement should focus on, so why can’t Northeastern follow?
