cannabisnews.com: Drug Use May Be Up at WSU!





Drug Use May Be Up at WSU!
Posted by FoM on January 21, 1999 at 11:15:43 PT

While arrests are down, police receiving more complaints from dormitories. Drug use by Washington State University students may be increasing, according to campus police who are spending more time chasing smoke through dormitory hallways!
After jumping more than 300 percent in 1997, on-campus arrests for drug offenses fell in 1998. But calls from dormitories asking police to investigate suspected drug use more than doubled last year from 1997 levels.In 1998, campus police were called out on 113 occasions to investigate suspected drug use. That compares to 45 calls in 1997. Monday evening, police employing a county drug dog arrested six people in a WSU dormitory room. All were cited for possession of drug paraphernalia.A drug dog team from the Whitman County Sheriff's Office happened to be on campus conducting a training session when the report of suspected marijuana use on the fourth floor of Streit Hall was received at the WSU police station.The dog gave police probable cause to obtain a search warrant, resulting in arrests.But typically, it hasn't worked that way for WSU police. Usually, campus police begin an investigation by attempting to trace the origin of a suspicious smell in dormitory hallways. If a suspect room is located, police knock on the door.Often those inside don't answer. If the door is opened, campus police are now operating under a court ruling that requires them to inform residents a search can be refused. Typically, permission for a search isn't granted, said WSU Police Capt. Mike Kenny.Drug arrests may have dropped last year, in spite of increased reports, because of the new constraints on police, Kenny said.The arrests resulted from one of seven reports of suspected dormitory drug use called in to campus police in the week since second semester began. In 1998, police made 28 arrests for drug offenses after investigating 113 reports of suspected drug use.That compared with 68 arrests in 1997 and 20 arrests in 1996.Most of the reports of drug use originate in freshmen dormitories -- including floors ostensibly substance-and smoke-free -- where police are finding increasing group drug use, Kenny said. A majority of arrests are for possession of marijuana or drug paraphernalia. If use of marijuana has increased on campus, it would not be surprising, said John Miller, coordinator of WSU's substance abuse prevention program. After declining for much of the decade, use of marijuana has been increasing in recent years, and ``typically, we reflect the national trends,'' he said.
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