Community Senate should not pass its proposal to toughen the rules against first-time drug offenders, simply because such a rule, as a concerned student wrote on the Senate Lotus Notes discussion, “reeks of fascism.” By enacting these new rules, which would both remove students from campus housing and bring the Greensboro Police Department onto the scene for single drug offences, the Judicial Board attempts only to suppress opposition through fear. Harsh laws cannot change the drug habits of students, just as the toughened alcohol policy has had little, or no effect on the number of drinkers.
However, some action needs to be taken to lessen the rampant, often too public use of drugs on this campus. Those who object to the proposal should keep in mind that we do in fact live in a democracy, where laws that govern the people are specifically in place to protect them. Drug use is illegal, and to maintain the values by which our nation is governed, we must abide by that fact.
Senate should instead seek to work with students concerned with the matter to reach some middle ground, to reach some rule that mandates drug use become more discreet, or else face enforcement of current campus rules regulating substance abuse. Currently, security guards and RAs turn their head when they witness students using illegal drugs. Drug use cannot be completely curtailed, but a result of decreasing its present overaccessibility would be fewer users and less business for dealers.
Create an open forum where voices can be heard, discussed, and then, in the custom of the Quakers, reach a decision through consensus, rather than through a hasty, unfounded judgement.