From Counter Punch
By Fred Gardner

Virginia Tech suspended or expelled 32 students last year for illicit drug use, according to Kris Reinertson, a junior who heads the Students for a Sensible Drug Policy chapter. Reinertson doesn’t know how many of the cases involved marijuana.

Virginia Tech applies a double-standard when it comes to alcohol and marijuana, he says. “It’s three strikes for underage drinking and zero tolerance for marijuana possession.” SSDP has been campaigning for a review of the policy. “The Ivy League and many other colleges have a three strikes policy for marijuana,” says Reinertson. “That’s what we want to see on here.”

When we hear about a lethal outburst such as the one at Virginia Tech, millions of Americans wonder whether the perpetrator was on Prozac or some other strong psychotropic drug. Given how readily doctors prescribe antidepressants and stimulants and sedatives and anti-psychotics to anyone presenting with an emotional problem, the odds are very high that Seung-Hoi Cho had been put on one (or more).

The frequency with which SSRIs induce bizarre, violent flip-outs heightens the odds that Cho had been a user. But 10 days after the killings, Cho’s records from the student health center have not been made public and the media is not pressing for their release. We wonder: will university administrators manage to keep Cho’s medical records sealed in the name of privacy or confidentiality or patients’ rights or some other fine-sounding abstraction? Cho’s reputation could not be damaged further, obviously. It’s their reputation (and endowment) they care about.

Read more Drugs