RICKJOHNSON's Blog

Since 2000, students with marijuana and other drug convictions have been denied federal financial aid for college — even if such convictions were in the past.

Please use MPP's easy online action center to ask your three members of Congress to repeal this bad law, as members of Congress will be voting on this any week now!

This unfair and counterproductive policy is the result of a provision of the Higher Education Act (HEA), which was slipped into the law without debate or a recorded vote by a prohibitionist zealot, Congressman Mark Souder (R-Ind.), in 1998.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, this provision has harmed more than 200,000 students, particularly racial minorities, by denying them aid and in some cases forcing them to drop out of school.

If you agree that forcing students out of school is a ridiculous response to marijuana possession, please take a minute to ask Congress to pass the Removing Impediments to Students' Education (RISE) Act.  The bill, introduced by Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), would repeal the aid elimination penalty.  Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) has introduced a similar bill in the Senate, which would remove the mandatory financial aid revocation and require a judge to decide if a student should lose financial aid.

Please use MPP's easy online action center to tell your three members of Congress to support these two bills today.

Sincerely,

Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.

I am sure parents want their children hitting the books and not the bong that are sent off to college.  In this case an individual could be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and who knows when that is? All colleges have parties, and alcohol is not only the mood modifying substance you will find at these parties. Who knows what different types of drugs you will find at a college party knowadays? So what if it is your boy or girl who is trying pot in a circle of people at one of these parties passing around a joint, blunt, pipe or some type of smoking device, when the police show up. Say your son or daughter is the one caught, and I am sure everyone is hoping it is not their child. So if this were to happen, do you think that they should then be denied financial aid? Remember, when you answer, imagine it is your child. Does this seem like it is a little harsh to deny someone money for education for smoking marijuana one time and getting caught, many times people who are know politicians have admitted to using marijuana and sometimes other drugs but where never caught, what if they were?  Most know that the party life can be on the crazy side while in college, chances are it will not happen to your son or daughter? Either way do you think it is harsh to deny their financial aid for one joint, many will not be able to afford college, so where does that leave them? I think their are many other types of violations that are more severe, but do they do not take away financial aid.  So do you think this is a harsh measure or that a student should loose their financial aid for one joint?