Politics & Advocacy
(As part of an effort to find students who are currently losing their financial aid eligibility because of drug convictions, our friends at Students for Sensible Drug Policy have put together a viral YouTube video to raise awareness of the law, get supporters to lobby Congress about it, and to let them know about the Perry Fund, DRCNet Foundation's scholarship program that assists students who are in this situation. Scott Morgan blogged about it for us this week, and we reprint his posting here.)
We can now add to our long and growing list of drug war grievances that this terrible crusade has become a fully functional army recruitment tool. The US Military has changed its rules to make it easier for drug offenders to enlist. Meanwhile, the aid elimination penalty of the Higher Education Act denies federal financial aid to students with drug convictions. That's right, folks. The federal government thinks drug users don't belong in college, but has no problem sending them to die in Iraq.
Our friends at Students for Sensible Drug Policy have a great new video explaining the absurdity of all this:
Of course, we support the US Military's new hiring policy. Past drug use should never be a factor in assessing a person's qualifications. But making it harder for drug offenders to go to school, while making it easier for them to join the army, is shockingly barbaric and hypocritical.
One can only hope that this bizarre situation may expose the fraudulent logic by which drug offenders are denied college aid to begin with. After all, military service is widely considered an honorable profession; one which requires great courage, character, and intelligence. The very notion that past drug users can serve their country in combat destroys the myth that these Americans are somehow handicapped because they took drugs.
Now that the US government has acknowledged this principle in one self-serving context, it bears a powerful moral obligation to examine and abolish other forms of discrimination against drug users. Freedom, however one may choose to define it, cannot be defended so long as we arbitrarily injure and obstruct our fellow citizens over such petty indiscretions.
Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
Comments
FBI also now accepting recruits who used Marijuana !
Codemning while condoning.
Apparently getting into the FBI was contingent on never admtting to having used drugs... not anymore... past marijuana usage is acceptable... marginally I'm sure!
When I enlisted in the Navy, more than 2 1/2 decades ago, I admitted to my teenage marijuana usage... not thinking a relatively benign drug like marijuana would be a problem... it wasn't... it was the 70's for christ's sake... as long as I stated in writing that my routine indiscretions was in effect 'regretful youthful experimentation'.
The military has a long history, especially during war, of taking whoever they can capture... including the 'dregs of humanity'.
It was a deliberate move
"The very notion that past drug users can serve their country in combat destroys the myth that these Americans are somehow handicapped because they took drugs."
I believe the policy which denies students government funded student loans is intended as punishment and that the military has "relaxed their rules" about drug use for recruiting reasons just emphasizes that belief -- bust them, even for mere possession and use, then deny them cheap loans so they cannot afford to go to college, and they now have a new source of cannon fodder. I'm sure the thinking goes "They don't deserve to live anyway, they're drug users!".
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