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.

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Download the NORML Daily Audio Stash for 2008-04-29

We’re upgrading the studios here at NORML’s West Coast Media Headquarters, so I want to thank everyone for their patience and apologize for not delivering your Daily Stash for Monday and your Weekend Stash from Saturday. Bluntman even wrote in to say, “I can’t sleep without my Stash!” I hope that’s a compliment and not an indication that my voice puts people to sleep!

Never fear, Bluntman and the rest of you Stashers, the new computer and sound system are now working. You will not get a crisper-sounding Stash and I will be able to process it much faster and easier. (And yes, you Mac devotees, it’s a PC and it’s Vista. When our ad revenue allows us to buy computers that are twice as expensive, we’ll switch to a Mac.)

Tuesday is our Government at Work day here on the Stash. Joining us after the news is Kris Krane, the Executive Director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy. Kris is here to promote a new video that asks why kids who are caught with a joint can’t get government money to go to school, but can get plenty of government money to go to war.

Cannabis Karri has surfed through the waves of podsafe music to bring us the Sunshine Variety Club, with a song they call “Green-Bong Mix”

And we conclude our podcast with Madeline Martinez, the Executive Director of Oregon NORML, who is here to promote this Saturday’s Global Marijuana March, taking place in over 200 cities nationwide, including Portland, Oregon, where marijuana activists are taking over the downtown square for an entire day of cannabis crusading.

So sit back and relax with a good friend and a tasty strain, this is your NORML Daily Audio Stash.

End the Drug War Draft!