Trying Not To Be Indelicate

[Guest Deanne65]

Has the persecution of cannabis smokers in US colleges increased?

If it has, did this follow the corporate invasion of the US educational establishment, and is there a direct relationship?

I plead ignorance on the statistics available on prosecutions and administrative actions on campus drug usage cases. I do, however, know that there is an apparent two-tier system of adjudication: one for those who are brought before the adjudicating body for underage drinking; and, quite another set of guidelines for the adjudication of those who have chosen to comsume illicit drugs. It seems that in so many ways, the college student-certainly in the United States-is subjected to the same kind of message about drug use from within the confines of the respective institution, as that communicated by society at large. I would not care to speculate on whose interests are being served by such a dichotomy as the above, but will simply let the reader reach his or her own conclusions.

I have come to learn-from a reliable source-that many a student caught consuming his drug of choice on campus (almost invariably, cannabis), and who is subjected to a comparatively light administrative censure (of one's lapse in judgement, no doubt), will often be strongly urged to attend couseling (university run substance abuse counseling), as a condition for continued enrollment in the university. If one has transgressed the bounds of acceptable drug consumption (read: exclusively as it pertains to the use-its moderate use being implicit- of the universal, culturally accepted drug, alcohol, by those of legal age.), which includes every illicit drug out there, then one is somehow diseased or disordered; there is no room for disputing, or refuting, such pronouncements, as those issuing from the judging body.

I find this latter observation to be duplicitous; this notion, that the consumption of a drug, outside the bounds of those which are culturally assimalated and accepted, must be symptomatic of something disfunctional in the drug user. The outcome of those cases brought before the respective university body is always weighted in favor of the prevailing science and law proscribing certain drugs; any outcome, favorable to the student, is a foregone conclusion. Still, and rather tellingly, there is tacit acceptance of drug usage inside and outside of the Campus of which I refer. So, why this continued de facto persecution, and double standard of adjudicating those who seek out and consume a drug, still regarded, presently, to be culturally(ceremonially) unassimilable (I suppose the sale of drug "paraphernalia", in the university town, is proof of nothing?)

Edited February 12, 2010 by Deanne65

[Guest Deanne65]

They're all capitalists, which makes them extremists. That's enough to cause serious concern. Why are our schools allowed to be deliberately infected with, and steered along, a narrow political ideology which is collapsing around us?

Very good point, indeed, eddie-not-too-silent. Indeed, a culture's institutions might be seen as a formal means at making concrete, those values embrassed by its respective culture. I am presently reading the book "Scientisim and values"(Wiggins and Schoeck, 1960), which addresses the nature of social institutions qua "value" mediators...as far as I can explain. Anyone is free to have his own take on this chapter regarding the continuity of "values", as communicated through our institutions. The chapter is entitled, "Social Science, and the problem of value." The above named book is rather heady stuff, but the aforementioned chapter is very instructive. Don't let the date of publication be a reason not to read the book, as any insights ones draws, are as applicable today, as they would have been the year (decade) the book was published. Anyway, eddie, you have made a very keen observation, one that I, too, have thought over, and have yet to personally research. Thanks for the heads up.

So, why this continued de facto persecution, and double standard of adjudicating those who seek out and consume a drug, still regarded, presently, to be culturally(ceremonially) unassimilable (I suppose the sale of drug "paraphernalia", in the university town, is proof of nothing?): should read as follows

Why, in the face of tacit acceptance of drug (cannabis) use, is there still a standard for judging those infractions, regarding licit drugs; and, another set of guidelines for any illicit drug use, even for mere possession? Whew! Was that Laconic enough?

Edited February 13, 2010 by Deanne65