California Smoking Ban Results Are In for 2008
Bull_Shi...@yahoo.com
Feds penetrated drug culture easily at San Diego State By ALLISON
HOFFMAN, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 59 minutes ago
Undercover agents who posed as college students to bust more than 100
suspected drug dealers at San Diego State University never had to
crack a book to gain acceptance on campus. All it took was cash.
The federal agents went to one or two parties but never actually went
to class or lived in the dorms. Instead, they merely arranged meetings
with suspected dealers and asked about buying cocaine, Ecstasy,
methamphetamine, marijuana and other drugs, authorities said
Wednesday.
"All it took was saying, `Hey, I go to State, can you hook me up?'"
said San Diego County prosecutor Damon Mosler. "And then it was off to
the races."
The day after the drug sweep landed members of three fraternities in
jail and led to the suspension of six frats, investigators revealed
how easy it was to penetrate the university's drug culture.
Students who had gotten caught for fighting, drinking, minor drug
offenses or other crimes quickly turned informants and used text
messages to introduce their drug dealers to undercover agents. Dealers
made handoffs in front of dorms, in parking lots or behind frat
houses, sometimes in broad daylight in full view of surveillance
cameras.
They apparently made little effort to launder their spoils. One
fraternity brother arrested Tuesday drove his Lexus directly from a
$400 cocaine sale on campus to a nearby bank, where he deposited the
cash, according to court papers.
That came as a surprise to agents from the Drug Enforcement
Administration, who were used to being thoroughly screened by dealers
scared of being arrested.
"They never gave any thought that we could be doing an operation
there," said Eileen Zeidler, a spokeswoman for the DEA office in San
Diego.
At least 75 people arrested during the five-month sting were San Diego
State students, and 13 of them were from seven fraternities. All
together, there were 128 arrests, 61 on Tuesday. Theta Chi had the
highest number of students arrested, with five.
Campus police started the probe a year ago after the cocaine overdose
death of a freshman sorority member, but they soon called in federal
agents to provide fresh faces on campus and supply the money needed to
make drug buys.
That was a major departure from the arms'-length relationship that has
existed between colleges and police since the 1960s. For decades,
police in many communities have largely turned a blind eye to drugs on
campus.
The DEA had been on campus at San Diego State before, to help
investigate a student suspected of cooking methamphetamine for his own
use in a campus chemistry lab, and campus police said they cooperated
with the FBI after receiving a hoax threat in the wake of last year's
Virginia Tech shootings. Yet the invitation to federal authorities was
unusual because it involved an open-ended investigation that didn't
involve a violent crime.
"In general, universities are pretty jealous of their prerogatives and
are uneasy about welcoming outside authorities onto campus," said Todd
Gitlin, a professor of journalism and sociology at Columbia
University,a former student radical and a leading authority on the
'60s counterculture. "There's a real reluctance at universities to
call on outside police."
University President Stephen Weber defended the decision to bring
federal authorities onto campus.
"Some have asked what we think this publicity has done for SDSU's
reputation. I have told them I am proud of the action taken by SDSU to
proactively address this serious threat to our students," Weber said
in a statement Wednesday. "As a parent I would want my son or daughter
to attend a university committed to providing the safest possible
environment."
Some students and parents complained that the bust was heavy-handed.
Danielle Patterson, a sophomore sorority member, said she was awake
cramming for finals when agents raided an apartment behind her
building, pounding on doors and marching boys down the block to the
college arena, where they were questioned.
"I never thought something like that would happen here," she said. "To
think they think drugs are such a big issue here, it's ridiculous."
Parents joined students at a campus rally Wednesday calling for more
drug-abuse treatment instead of tougher enforcement.
"This heavy hand coming down is not going to change drug use on
campus," said Gretchen Burns-Bergman, whose son is a month away from
graduating. "There's not going to be a shortage of drugs on campus."
During the investigation, agents quickly worked their way to
Fraternity Row, where the main target was Theta Chi. They discovered
six of its members were operating a sophisticated drug business, with
younger "apprentice" members accompanying older members to drug deals
in order to learn how the business was run, authorities say.
The ringleader, a 19-year-old, brazenly sent out text messages
advertising weekend blowout sales on cocaine, authorities say. Apart
from that, however, the fraternity did little to attract attention. In
fact, it was known for having a no-alcohol policy at its rundown gray
house.
"Theta Chi did not have that reputation, nothing that would have led
us to suspect they were the primary purveyors," said Lt. Lamine Secka
of the campus police.
One informant told investigators the profits from drug sales were
being plowed back into the fraternity's operating budget, according to
prosecutors.
The university's fraternities and sororities have about 3,000 members,
but they play an outsized role in campus life at the 34,000-student
school.
A lawyer for one student arrested last week with about $15,000 worth
of cocaine and marijuana did not immediately return a call. The names
of the lawyers for some of other defendants could not immediately be
learned.
___
Associated Press writers Elliot Spagat in San Diego and Greg Risling
in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
Along with California's smoking Ban laws.
Yesterdays results
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080506/ap_on_re_us/college_drug_bust
The Colege kids need protection from cigarette smoke... Huh >?
Such Dangers...
msmomo2u
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080508/ap_on_re_us/college_drug_bust;_yl...
>
> The Colege kids need protection from cigarette smoke... Huh >?
> Such Dangers...
fuck bans! If you ban something. I want it even more. And don't ever
ban the art of wanting to ban or actually banning. what started out as
the original art of. unless it involves cigarette smoke which we all
wholeheartedly ban with no reservation.