UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Tuesday. May 2.1995
5A
Photo illustration by Valerie Crow / KANSAN
Popular drugs and their effects
Illicit drugs are all too common at the University of Kansas.
By Robert Allen Kansan staff writer
And although some initially give pleasant results, all have negative long-term effects.
A psychological addiction makes the person dependent on the feeling, but the body does not crave the drug, she said.
Cathy Thrasher, chief pharmacist at Watkins Memorial Health Center, said that there were two kinds of addiction: physical and psychological.
These are some of the more common drugs used at KU and their effects on the body.
Marijuana leaves are usually smoked but can be ingested in tea or food. Effects from smoking it occur within minutes and can last for hours. Users describe a sense of calmness and well-being. Dry mouth, red eyes, clumsiness and increased appetite also result. Marijuana can make the senses more vivid, and it is psychologically addictive.
"It's very accessible, available and inexpensive on college campuses," said Julie Francis, health educator at Watkins.
■ LSD, or acid, is a hallucinogen that has no medical purpose. It usually appears in tablet, capsule or liquid form on blotter paper. LD causes users to experience hallucinations and altered perceptions of reality. LD also
can cause nausea, dizziness, loss of appetite and increased blood pressure and body temperature. LSD is psychologically addictive.
Drugs in the Dorms
The largest risk from LSD is a flashback, when the effects of LSD suddenly and unexpectedly reoccur in the body.
Cocaine and crack are psychologically and physically addictive.
"If you use the drug now, in 10 years it's possible to have a flashback." Francis said.
Cocaine and its purer form, crack, initially produce feelings of happiness and ecstasy. Hunger and fatigue fade away. But cocaine and crack also affect the central nervous system, causing the heart rate, respiration, pulse and blood pressure to rise. Blood vessels in the heart also contract, and strokes or heart attacks are likely in users.
- Heroin is a narcotic derived from morphine and appears as a white or brownish powder. Heroin can be smoked, inhaled or injected. Heroin causes feelings of euphoria, warmth, calmness, drowsiness and loss of concern. Heroin is very physically addictive and withdrawal is very painful. Shivering, cramps, diarrhea, vomiting and sleeplessness are common withdrawal symptoms. Death from accidental overdose is common.
Cocaine can be obtained from the leaves of a South American plant and was originally used as an anesthetic. Cocaine can be smoked, inhaled or injected, but smoking cocaine will cause it to react faster. Smoking it also produces higher highs and lower lows, Francis said.
"It's responsible for more deaths than any other illegal drug," Francis said.
Continued from Page 1A.
But this was no laughing matter. KU police say they take doping in the dorms seriously. They say they have shown up in the residence halls almost two dozen times this semester, on the trail of pot smoke. One of those calls landed a criminal case.
While the officer looked around the room, pictures began to flash through Jodie's head: going to jail, losing her scholarship, getting kicked out of school and having a criminal record.
"You think in the back of your mind, 'Gee, this is really funny,'" she recalls. "I can't believe this is happening to me."
Jodie was scared, and, perhaps because she was buzzing, she also found the situation slightly humorous.
The tri-county drug squad regards the residence halls as small potatoes, however. They're looking for dealers, they say, not users.
Small-time user
As it turned out in the preceding scenario, nobody was arrested, and nobody went to jail.
Michelle, a friend of Jodie's who had been smoking pot with her before the police came, said she didn't know how many times
she had used pot but said she wouldn't call herself a "druggie."
s. she wouwdn't call herself a "druggie." "It's not a really regular thing," she said. "There are a lot of people in this hall who do it a lot more than me."
Jodie and Michelle and other names used in this story are fictitious for obvious reasons. Nobody would talk about drugs without guaranteed anonymity.
Michelle said she thought having the cops show up was ironic. She could name people who smoked once or twice a day
and never got caught. But the second time she and Jodie smoked up together in the residence hall the cop came
The number of drug violations went down this past year, from 25 offenses in 1993 to 16 offenses in 1994. But Rozmiarek offers no list of reasons for the decline.
"A little bit of pot might not be a big deal," said Rose Rozmiarek of the KU police department. "But if they're caught with it, it could be."
KU police don't deny that illegal-drug activity is going on in the residence halls. And they're prepared to catch people like Jodie and Michelle.
"It was a really bizarre thing," Michelle said. "We were being really cautious."
Rozmirak said the goal of the KU police department was to get rid of illegal drugs, but how much KU police could really control drugs was hard to say.
"A lot of the drugs we end up with, we get from the street," Rozmiarek said. "Not all the drug cases come from residence halls."
Since the beginning of the semester, KU police have reported seven cases involving drugs. Six of those came from cars during traffic stops. The other was a case of possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia in Hashing Hall, after KU police received a call about the smell of marijuana.
KU police have received 21 calls since the beginning of the semester about marijuana smoke, but in each case, they found no evidence to pursue a criminal case.
Rozmiak said the fewest drug calls came from Gertrude Sellards Pearson-Corbin Hall, all-women residence hall. The other halls were about equal in terms of calls.
Officer James Anguiano of the KU police department said visiting a person's room after getting a call about drug activity required a certain element of surrise.
Opening up the door and seeing a KU police officer standing there makes some students nervous and reluctant to talk, Anguiano said. Generally, students cooperate after the officers explain why they are there.
If it's in plain view that gives the officer probable cause that a crime is being
But doing what police ask because he or she is scared, may not be in a dope smoker's best interest.
committed."
"Officers will try to tell you everything will
Michole Koehler associate director, Legal Services for Students
be better if you cooperate," said Michele Kessler, associate director of Legal Services for Students. "A lot of students just think, 'Oh, I caught.' I'll go ahead and tell them."
"The biggest mistake students make is to open the door wide." Kessler said. "If some
But students, such as Jodie and Michelle, who are smoking pot don't have to answer the knock at the door. They also don't have talk to the officer, Kessler said.
Kessler recommended that students talk through the door or step outside to talk to the officer. When students open the door and their drugs or drug paraphernalia are visible, the officer can choose to arrest the student or give out a ticket.
At that point, officers have to decide if they can make an arrest or give a citation.
"If it's in plain view, that gives the officer probable cause that a crime is being committed." she said.
them identify themselves."
Kessler did recommend that if students are visited by an officer and questioned, they only should answer identification questions such as name and address. The
Kessler said students should just step outside.
"Don't let the officer in your room," she said. "You don't have to answer the officer's questions."
student doesn't have to answer any questions beyond that point.
"Just tell them I don't want to talk to you," she said.
Then shut the door.
A Sideshow
In the war on drugs, the residence halls are a minor theater.
Bill Shepard, a Lawrence police lieutenant, is in charge of the Tri-County Drug Task Force which covers Douglas, Jefferson and Franklin counties. Shepard said he wouldn't classify drugs in the halls as being a big problem.
For most of the students who use illegal drugs, marijuana is the most prevalent, Shepard said. But LSD is making a comeback.
"They just go wild when they use that," he said.
Shepard has seen LSD at the University and has worked cases where the drug has been manufactured locally.
With the right materials, Shepard said a chemistry student could make LSD. But manufacturing of illegal drugs in the residence halls is rare, he said. Most of the time, the drug unit only comes in contact with recreational use and drug sales in the halls.
Most of the students at KU are good kids, Shepard said. The students who are selling the drugs and pushing the drugs are the people the task force wants to put out of business.
"They bring it in from the outside, and they won't tell us where they got it sometimes," Shepard said. "Some people will say 'here's my source, and I can help.'"
Last semester, a KU student sold marijuana out of a residence hall room to a undercover drug-unit officer who was wearing a police transmitter, a "wire." Shepard said the student also was using someone else's room.
Usually, the students who sell drugs have a connection before they come to KU, he said.
To Shepard, students who smoke marijuana aren't criminals. The students who are selling marijuana are the criminals, he said.
"What I worry about is the ones who use it and come here and influence the ones who don't," he said. "They're the ones we want."
Shepard said he hasn't seen cocaine or heroin on campus.
Dorm Dealer
"Cocaine was the only thing I did after coming here," said Joe, a resident of Hashinger Hall.
But one student tells a different story.
Joe, who had done plenty of drugs by the time he got to KU, said he had snorted cocaine more than a dozen times. He's sold the drug as well.
"Cocaine is fairly easy to get most of the time just because I stumbled upon a guy who could get it real easily," he said.
Generally speaking, Joe said coke can be hard to get in the Midwest.
"I've sold a variety of things," Joe said.
"You buy in quantity and then sell in small amounts."
Joe said he wasn't into coke dealing to make money. He said he did it just to help out his friends and make them happy.
"My biggest concern is everyone, and all of my friends get to enjoy their drugs," Joe said. "And I'll make a little change for the risk I'm taking."
While most students who sell drugs probably aren't making enough money to pay for tuition, they certainly can make some spending money.
"They can make a tidy profit and then have
"They can make a try enough drugs left over for themselves," Joe said. "I know people that certainly do that."
Pot has the biggest market and is the easiest to sell. He knows because he's sold it before.
With pot, Joe said he wouldn't mind selling to a friend of a friend of someone he didn't know. Cocaine is a different story, however. With coke, Joe always
sells to people who are his close friends
"Because that's such a scary thing and involves a little more paranoia, I wouldn't be trying to make money off that," Joe said. "I wouldn't be trying to do a lot of dealing with that."
The legal penalties for cocaine are much more severe, so people are more touchy about it he said.
"People keep flipping the coin, and one day it will come down tails."
For Joe, there is always a little voice of warning in the back of his mind when he makes a sale.
Is Joe worried about getting caught?
"My biggest fear would be of people that you can't be sure of," he said. "When you start talking to people about selling things or buying things from people, you can't be sure."
Setting the tone
"What if this person is a cop?" the voice asks.
"If it doesn't have an immediate consequence, people say, 'Well, I got away with it.'" he said. "People keep flipping the coin, and one day it will come down tails."
It will catch up with them at some point, said Ken Stoner, director of student housing.
Ken Stoner KUdirector of student housing
Dope isn't unique to the halls or the University.
"Enforcement is what we have to do," said Jonathan Long, an assistant director of student housing. "Education is what we want to do."
Addressing illegal drug activity in the residence halls means approaching drugs and drug use from two different angles enforcement and education.
Students who use drugs in the residence halls are flipping a coin.
Illegal drug use violates both the law and the student housing policy, which makes it a serious offense. Long said. When drug activity is reported, it is not treated lightly.
"I don't think there's more of a problem here than anywhere else," Stoner said. "I think we try to address it as best we can."
To educate residents about the dangers of drug use, the department tries to emphasize the dangers and consequences of drug use through various programs.
"We contact University police, who confront the residents," he said. "The police then handle the situation as a police matter."
Long said outside speakers and peer educators are brought in to speak to both students and resident assistants.
Ken Stoner
"RA's are required to go over this, and they try to let residents know what expectations are related to their behavior," he said. "That sets a tone." Is drug use a problem in the residence
"Whether it's a problem depends on how you define a
problem," Long said. "We do have an increase in the number of situations our staff has to deal with which have to do with illegal drugs."
By far, marijuana is the most frequently used illegal drug in the residence halls, Long said. While it is possible for students to grow pot in their rooms, most of them buy the drug from outside sources, he said.
"Manufacturing, sale and distribution—the majority of those types of activities occur outside the hall," Long said. "There have been situations in the past where we have acted on suspicion of a resident selling illegal drugs, but I don't think it originates in the hall."
Even though Jodie almost was busted for smoking dope in the residence halls, she says she'll do it again. Michelle says she will, too.
Coming down off a high
The two girls don't know when they will get high again. They don't know when they'll quit smoking done either.
"I don't know," Jodie said. "Sometimes you're going to stick with things forever, and sometimes it's great for awhile, and sometimes you're not going to go back to it. ever."
Michelle doesn't really see a reason for her to quit smoking pot. She said that she knows professionals in the working world who still light up.
"I know some of my friends whose parents smoke pot," she said. "And it's not interfering with their lives."
Jodie said she would just stop smoking "whenever."
"I know that sounds kind of weird," she says. "Because when I was 10 years old I was always like, 'No, no, I'll never smoke pot."