Appeals Court Rejects Challenge To Law Denying Student Aid To Drug Offenders
NORML.ORG US: Appeals Court Rejects Challenge To Law Denying Student Aid To Drug Offenders
Opponents of a law that prevents students who are convicted of drug offenses from receiving federal financial aid were handed another legal defeat today.The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, upholding a 2006 decision by a U.S. District Court, has refused to reinstate a lawsuit that sought to strike down the law.
In its ruling the appeals court rejected arguments by the Students for Sensible Drug Policy Foundation, which filed the appeal, that the federal law is unconstitutional.
The group argued, in part, that denial of financial aid by the Education Department to students who have already served a court-imposed sentence violates the U.S. Constitution’s ban on double jeopardy, criminally punishing someone twice for the same offense. But the appeals court said that the federal law’s sanctions cannot be considered criminally punitive, especially in the double-jeopardy context.
So refusing to grant federal aid for students caught smoking pot isn’t a criminal punishment, therefore, it is not double jeopardy. OK, I guess technically speaking, that is true. The student isn’t being fined, imprisoned, or put under probation.
But being told you lose your financial aid for school certainly is a punishment, after all, it is called the Higher Education Act Aid Elimination Penalty. A penalty that is not meted out to any other type of criminal - murderers, rapists, arsonists, thieves, con artists, brawlers, embezzlers, traitors, and spies can all receive financial aid, but a pot smoker cannot.
I believe there is a motivation by those in power to keep marijuana smokers in the lower socioeconomic classes. SSDP mentions the “Drug War Draft”, and I agree that the policy of denying college to cannabis consumers while lowering their barriers to military enlistment is a backdoor draft. But it is also a brain drain of the best and brightest of our community who would excel in higher education (pun not exactly intended) who aren’t allowed to fulfill their potential.
When marijuana is the choice of the oppressed, the lower classes, the people without letters and degrees, it is easier for the drug warriors to maintain prohibition lies. Even when a notable pot smoker like the late astrophysicist Carl Sagan stands up for marijuana, he can be treated like one of the irrelevant exceptions to the rule.
This stereotype of the idiot dopehead, of course, is a fabricated concept. So many doctors, lawyers, scientists, authors, and great thinkers have been cannabis consumers that it rebukes the idea that most of us are “Cheech & Chong”. But the average person on the street will think just that stereotype when considering marijuana reform.
Conversely, the drug that causes the most societal harm, alcohol, has exactly the opposite marketing campaign behind it. Alcohol drinkers are portrayed as adventurous, sexy, fun, exciting, athletic, and sociable, when my personal experience of playing music in bars for fifteen years proves just about the opposite.
That’s not to say there aren’t responsible social drinkers or there aren’t any Jeff Spicoli-style potheads out there. It’s just interesting to me that the portrayal of the lowest-functioning stoner gets lots of play, but the portrayal of the lowest-functioning drunk is rarely mentioned.
Tags: financial aid, HEA, SSDP
