SIUC students on both sides of the supply and demand of marijuana in Carbondale need to ask themselves if petty drug sales and getting high are worthwhile pursuits.

While alcohol abuse traditionally has been at the center of problems with SIUC’s image, the prominent abuse of marijuana has consistently been overlooked Carbondale has become a profitable spot for small-time marijuana dealers and a haven for users.

In spite of any perceived relaxed attitudes toward marijuana in Carbondale, marijuana dealers and users are battling the elements of good, common sense.

Advertisement

In a DE story published Nov. 12, John, a local marijuana dealer and user, explained his reasoning behind contributing to the local drug culture money. As an SIUC student, he was able to pay for living expenses and a habit by selling the drug in Carbondale. Now an alumnus, John remains in the area peddling marijuana.

Why does risking arrest seem more advantageous than getting a real job? For John, selling drugs to small-town college students is an easier way of getting income.

Not only is this dealer suffering from a lack of motivation, but he seems to have smoked too much of his own supply. The dealer estimates earning $30,000 in the last eight years from selling marijuana. That is not large amount of money for someone with a college degree. John could be doing more with his life.

This dealer’s logic demonstrates one of the best reasons to say no to drugs. Still, there are a number of SIUC students who are too stoned to stay away from the drug. John says about half of his clients are SIUC students.

In a DE story published Nov. 14, a marijuana user tells a different story. Kim, a student living in University Housing, says buying marijuana from people like John and smoking it in her dorm room allows her to escape the pressures of being a college student. Although she has been arrested for smoking marijuana and risks expulsion and losing any financial aid for being caught with the drug she continues her habit. It’s kind of cool to just be stupid for a little while, she said.

While John and Kim are two telling examples of the marijuana scene in Carbondale, statistics show there are more people like them on and around the SIUC campus.

The number of drug arrests by SIUC and Carbondale police have skyrocketed over the last few years from 114 in 1993 to 323 in 1996. During that same period, the number of people written up for marijuana violations in University Housing has increased by more than 300 percent.

Advertisement*

The Carbondale office of the federal Drug Enforcement Agency has been involved in 16 marijuana-related cases in the last four years. The DEA does not take on such cases unless at least 1,000 kilograms or 1,000 plants are involved.

All of this indicates that marijuana has become the drug of choice for a significant number of people in the SIUC area. And to get high in Carbondale, users only need to track down any number of dealers. It is amazingly simple.

Marijuana is not packaged in a labeled bottle and readily sold at a local liquor store, but, according to John and Kim, it is easily accessible in Carbondale. Because of that accessibility, most SIUC students are going to have to deal with the issue of marijuana at some point. They may consider it a way of getting quick cash or a way of getting a quick high.

Maybe SIUC students should learn that the risks of selling and smoking marijuana far outweigh any benefit the drug can give them. Just ask people like John and Kim.