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Calling
on
Students
to
Raise
Your
Voices
for
Repeal
of
the
HEA
Drug
Provision
10/4/02
With the new school year
already upon us, and Congressional elections just over a month away, we
at the Drug Reform Coordination Network are writing to ask you to help
turn up the heat on the student-led campaign to repeal the Higher Education
Act's drug provision.
During the 2001-2002 school
year, more than 47,700 students were denied access to federal college aid
because of drug convictions, loans, grants, even work-study programs.
This number doesn't account for people who didn't bother applying because
they assumed they would be ineligible. The current academic year,
the third in which the drug provision is in force and the second in which
it is being fully enforced, is expected to see just as many young people
forced out of school or they or their families plunged into financial hardship
because of the HEA drug provision.
In 2002-2003, there is more
hope than ever. A bill in the US House of Representatives to repeal
the drug provision, H.R. 786, has 67 cosponsors, and ten members of Congress
spoke at our press conference last May to call for the provision's full
repeal, a stunning success. And Students for Sensible Drug Policy
now stretches across more than 200 campuses, with hundreds more in the
works. Your voice is again needed, to continue to move this issue
forward and repeal the provision in 2003 or 2004 when the Higher Education
Act is reauthorized by Congress.
We have just finished updating
our HEA activist packet, so please visit http://www.RaiseYourVoice.com
to learn about the issue, download the packet, and to sign our petition
telling you want them to remove the drug war from education and repeal
the anti-drug financial aid ban. When you're done, please call your
US Representative on the phone to make an even stronger impact -- you can
call them via the Congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121, or visit
http://www.house.gov
to look up their direct numbers.
Students, visit http://www.RaiseYourVoice.com/students.html
to find out how to get involved with the campaign on your campus -- more
than 90 student governments so far have endorsed our resolution calling
for repeal of the drug provision. If you're already at work on this,
please write us at [email protected]
and let us know what's happening. Also, visit http://www.RaiseYourVoice.com/download.html
for an online copy of the activist packet. Leave your e-mail address
if you want to receive occasional updates on the HEA campaign.
Please forward this alert
to your friends or use the tell-a-friend form on RaiseYourVoice.com, and
please consider making a donation -- large or small -- to keep this and
other DRCNet efforts moving forward at full speed. Visit http://www.drcnet.org/donate/
to help, or mail your check or money order to DRCNet, P.O. Box 18402, Washington,
DC 20036. (Contact us for instruction if you wish to make a donation
of stock.)
Again, visit http://www.RaiseYourVoice.com
to write to Congress and get involved in the campaign! In the meantime,
here are some more reasons why the HEA drug provision is wrong:
-
The vast majority of Americans
convicted of drug offenses are convicted of nonviolent, low-level possession.
-
The HEA drug provision represents
a penalty levied only on the poor and the working class; wealthier students
will not have the doors of college closed to them for want to financial
aid.
-
Judges already have the power
to rescind financial aid eligibility as individual cases warrant.
The HEA drug provision removes that discretion.
-
The HEA drug provision has a
disparate impact on different races. African Americans, for example,
comprise 13% of the population and 13% of all drug users, but account for
more than 55% of those convicted of drug possession charges.
-
No other class of offenses,
not even rape or murder, carries automatic loss of financial aid eligibility.
-
Access to a college education
is the surest route to the mainstream economy and a crime-free life.
-- END --
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Issue #257, 10/4/02
DEA to California Medical Marijuana Patients: Drop Dead | Federal Parole Bill Orphaned with Death of Sole Sponsor -- Activists, Prisoners Look to Other Bills, Other Sponsors | Canadian Government Announces Parliament to Consider Marijuana Decriminalization -- US Worries, Blusters | Widely Hyped Ecstasy Study Full of Holes, Critics Say | In Brazil, "Parallel Power" of the Narcos Flexes Muscle on Eve of Elections | Montana Drug Policy Task Force Calls for More Treatment and Prevention, War on Meth | The November Coalition Hits the Road: Journey for Justice Aims to Mobilize Support for Freeing Drug War Prisoners | Newsbrief: Peruvian Coca on Rise as Country Revamps Coca Eradication Effort | Uribe Wants to Recriminalize Drug Possession in Colombia | Newsbrief: California Governor Vetoes Bill Allowing Syringe Sales, Vetoed Industrial Hemp Study Earlier | Newsbrief: California Town to Pay $3 Million, Apologize for Drug Raid Death | Newsbrief: And the Killing Continues | Newsbrief: Nevada -- The Survey Says... Legalize It! | Newsbrief: University of Missouri SSDP, NORML in Marijuana Decriminalization Petition Drive | Newsbrief: US Explores Drugging Rioters | Newsbrief: Drug Warrior Maginnis Leaves Family Research Council | Newsbrief: DPA Campaign Provides Tools to Fight School Drug Testing | Calling on Students to Raise Your Voices for Repeal of the HEA Drug Provision | Do You Read The Week Online? | Action Alerts: Rave Bill, Medical Marijuana, Higher Education Act Drug Provision | The Reformer's Calendar
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