As young people, we will have to live with the effects, positive or negative, of drug policies for the rest of our lives. Institutions of higher learning are charged with educating students so that in the future they can become responsible adult citizens. Universities and colleges should never be making students lives more difficult and stressful; classes take care of that already. At a minimum no student should have their chance at a good education taken away from them, especially if they do have a problem. We recognize the real and complex issues associated with drug abuse and addiction and we want to formulate a drug policy that effectively and sensibly deals with these issues.

Numerous universities across the country are implementing a wide range of alternative drug policies, allowing us to see what actually works. We know for sure that punitive prohibitionist policies cause significantly more harm than they prevent. We also know that drug education and treatment are more effective than punishment for people who have real problems.

At the University of Houston our drug policy is called the Drug and Alcohol Abuse Prevention Policy, and is a part of the Student Handbook. There are numerous things we would like to change about the drug policy here at UH, and SSDP@UH is exploring all avenues to be able to accomplish this.

More information will be posted in the coming days as I begin to put all of the research I’ve done thus far into coherent documents.