Last year on the campaign trail, Al Gore acknowledged smoking marijuana while he was a college student. Good thing they were only trying to get elected president and not applying for a student loan. Today, infractions of the nation's drug laws can put an end to a student's college plans. Under a 1998 law that is being fully enforced for the first time by the Bush administration, according to a report in the New York Times, students convicted on drug charges are ineligible for federal financial aid and loans for one year after a possession conviction, or for two years after a conviction for selling.
Repeat offenders can lose federal college assistance permanently.
No other crime carries such a penalty - not even murder. Not only is it like two penalties for the same crime, as a student who lost his loan said, but it is likely to hit hardest poorer students, who rely on such aid, and blacks, who make up a disproportionate share of those arrested on drug charges. Last year 9,200 students lost their college financial aid for all or part of the academic year. Americans have always looked to higher education as the path to an improved life. Let's not add more roadblocks to an already difficult journey.