He only uses pot and illegal prescription drugs, but the 23-year-old Portland Hall resident proudly lists the narcotics he’s been offered since moving into the dorm. “Weed, of course. Ecstasy, acid. Lots of prescriptions–OxyContin, Vicodin, Ritalin. ‘Shrooms just came in.”
“It’s like a drugstore,” he said.
A 19-year-old resident of Robie-Andrews Hall used cocaine for the first time in the dorm last semester. “It was pretty easy to get,” she said. “I had been offered it before, but it is really expensive. I would rather buy some beer.”
The gravity of USM’s drug issue came into the spotlight following the death of a USM student. Portland Hall resident Nicholas J. Johnston died off-campus March 22 from a suspected drug overdose. The incident report from the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office lists hypodermic needles as evidence.
Interviews with USM residential students, who remain anonymous for fear of prosecution, reveal how accessible drugs are on both the Portland and Gorham campuses. From the statistics available on criminal violations at USM, the University says it’s impossible to tell what the numbers reveal about a drug problem on campus.
Detective Sgt. Ronald Saindon of the USM Police said reported incidents of drug abuse in residence halls are “unremarkable.” The official statistics from USM’s Office of Community Standards show a similarly small number of drug violations.
“Most drug violations [on campus] involve small usable amounts of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, i.e. pipes,” he said. By state law, a usable amount of marijuana is less than 1.25 ounces. “We respond most often to reports of the smell of marijuana.”
Few occurrences of narcotics have appeared on campus, Saindon said. “In the last two years, we have had a case involving heroin.” The case occurred on campus and not in a residence hall.
“Generally speaking, there are two different options: referring the case to Community Standards, or to the courts,” Saindon said.
USM’s Office of Community Standards acts as the judicial body for disciplining drug violations on campus. Cases of drug abuse violation not referred to local law enforcement are sent to the Office of Community Standards for discipline.
The Office of Community Standards also compiles official crime statistics for USM, which are available to the public and also maintained on USM’s Website.
The numbers can be misleading.
In 2001, one drug law arrest and 29 drug law disciplines were reported in residence halls. In 2000, one arrest and 27 disciplines were reported. Statistics for 2002 are not available until August.
These totals do not reflect the actual number of arrests made or the number of USM students disciplined for drug abuse violations, said Stephen Nelson, assistant to the vice president for the Office of Community Standards.
The difference between a drug law arrest and a drug law discipline is whether a violation was considered an arrestable offense or not, he explained. It does not always mean that any disciplinary action was taken.
Nelson said he was unable to provide an accurate number of students disciplined for drug violations by the Office of Community Standards, saying that the computer database was “antiquated” (see sidebar on the Clery Act).
While the number of drug abuse violations is low, students living in residence halls in Portland and Gorham depict a different image of drugs at USM.
Some students describe an accessibility to drugs that can be obtained as easily as walking down the hall. A former Portland Hall resident described one dealer last year who had three people selling drugs for him in different hallways throughout the building.
Once a student was recognized as a buyer, the sellers would stop him and his friends when they were walking down the hallway to flaunt the latest stash they carried with them. The student likened the network of sellers to a “pyramid scheme.”
“Mostly pot [was available] but you could get a lot of different things,” he said.
For other USM students, locating drugs on campus requires a little more effort. One student from Robie-Andrews said she doesn’t really have a “dealer” but a select few individuals who occasionally run into a supply of drugs, ranging from marijuana to cocaine. Her laundry list of narcotics purchased on campus include Special K (ketamine), cocaine, hallucinogenic mushrooms, Ecstasy, mid to high-grade speed, Vicodin, and Adderall.
“I could get most drugs if I wanted to sit down and put in the effort,” she said. “I have been trying to limit my intake of street drugs and just stick with cheeba and alcohol.”
A Portland Hall resident said he mostly limits himself to smoking marijuana for his “well being.” In the past he’s bought and used Ecstasy, hallucinogenic mushrooms, and cocaine in Portland Hall. He describes access to narcotics like cocaine as “sporadic” but had three different contacts in Portland Hall for buying drugs.
Twice he and his friends were warned by a resident assistant for smoking marijuana in his room. He said he is “generally smart and never had a problem [with getting caught].” Neither time action was taken against him.
“We were not written up or anything,” he said. “They just told us not to do it again.”
University Police do not consider the drug problem to be out of the ordinary. “[Every school] has a problem with drugs,” Saindon said. “Our problem with drugs compared to other states is pale in comparison.”
Gorham Editor Andrew Dolby contributed to this report.
Elizabeth Baish can be contacted at [email protected]
***
The controversy of the Clery Act
They don’t give an accurate number of arrests made or number of students disciplined for drug abuse violations, but USM’s campus crime statistics are available to the public and online on USM’s Website (http:// www.usm.maine.edu/police/safetyreport.htm).
The federal Campus Security Act, enacted in 1990 and renamed the Clery Act in 1998, requires all universities to disclose crimes to the community. USM’s Office of Community Standards is responsible for maintaining and recording the statistics required to adhere to the Clery Act.
However, there is controversy over the way the statistics are recorded and presented. Stephen Nelson, assistant to the vice president for the Office of Community Standards, said the statistics do not reflect an actual number of arrests made or actual number of students disciplined for violations.
Nelson said the database was set up to comply by the Clery Act and could not provide statistics on the number of drug disciplines at USM.
“What use are [the Clery Act statistics] for students and our community members? None,” Nelson said.