Drug War Flunks Out

Kraig Selken is a model student. A history major at Northern State University in South Dakota, Selken has maintained a GPA above 3.0 and was looking forward to a career as a teacher after his graduation in June 2007. But last October his hopes became a casualty of the "war on drugs" after he pled guilty to a misdemeanor for possessing a small amount of marijuana. Thanks to a provision of the Higher Education Act (HEA), Selken was automatically made ineligible for the financial aid he needs to pay for college and will not be able to complete his last year unless he finds some other way to cover the cost.

On March 22 Selken joined Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), a national organization committed to drug-law reform, and two other student plaintiffs in a federal class-action lawsuit, brought with the assistance of the ACLU's Drug Law Reform Project. The suit charges that the HEA drug provision violates the due process and the double jeopardy clauses of the Fifth Amendment. By singling out drug offenders for punishment and stripping them of educational assistance on top of their criminal penalties, the lawsuit claims, the government is trampling on students' constitutional rights. "I want to complete my education and help end an unconstitutional and nonsensical policy," says Selken, "both for my own benefit and for the thousands of other students impacted by the provision."

SSDP says that according to government figures, more than 180,000 people have been temporarily or permanently denied financial aid since the HEA provision went into effect in 2000. Drug crimes are the sole offense for which students lose eligibility. Murderers, rapists and child molesters are all eligible. Marisa Garcia is not. Ticketed for possessing a pipe containing marijuana residue just before the start of her freshman year at California State University, Fullerton, Garcia was stripped of her financial aid. Like Garcia, the vast majority of drug offenders are convicted of possessing a small amount of marijuana, and advocates believe this is also true of those denied financial aid by the HEA provision.

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