NY Times: Law barring college aid to pot offenders should be repealed Jason Rhyne

Published: Friday November 2, 2007



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Print This Email This It's time for Congress to repeal a law that prevents students with marijuana convictions from receiving federal financial aid for college, says the New York Times editorial board in a Friday opinion piece. "Anything that keeps ex-offenders from attending college makes it more likely that they will be caught in the revolving door that leads to prison," writes the Times. "Tens of thousands of people have been pushed in that direction since the 1990s when Congress passed a law that barred even minor drug offenders from receiving federal education aid." Although the editorial points out that Congress last year struck portions of the law barring aid for individuals whose offenses took place more than ten years ago, it insists that the rest of the provisions should be scrapped as well: "The law is wrong-headed on several counts. It primarily affects low-income students and exempts the wealthy, who dont need aid to attend college," continues the Times. "It targets young people of color, who are disproportionately prosecuted for drug offenses and already less likely to complete college." Even relatively small-time offenses, for which criminal courts typically only mete out probation, fines or community service orders, can render an individual temporarily ineligible for aid. The current provision, passed by Congress as part of a 1998 amendment to the Higher Education Act of 1965, was proposed by Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN). The legislation was signed into law by President Bill Clinton. In 2006, Congress revised the law again, scaling it back so as to pertain only to those convicted of marijuana crimes while currently receiving aid. That amendment was tacked on to a deficit-reduction package slashing $12.7 billion from federal student-loan programs. "Federal college aid was never intended to be used as a weapon of enforcement," concludes the Times. "Any attempt to employ it that way inevitably results in perverse and unintended results." The ACLU and a coalition of organizations critical of US drug policy have previously called for the law's repeal. Read the full editorial here.

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